The Article in Brief

Patient Satisfaction With Care for Urgent Health Problems: A Survey of Family Practice Patients

Michelle Howard, MSc , and colleagues

Background The goal of this study is to better understand patients’ satisfaction with care for urgent health problems provided in different settings. The study is based on a survey mailed to family practice patients.

What This Study Found Patients’ satisfaction with after-hours care for an urgent problem is higher if provided by their own family doctor or their doctor’s after-hours clinic, compared with a walk-in clinic, the emergency department, and telephone health advisory services. According to a survey of 1,227 patients from 36 practices in Thunder Bay, Ontario, who were asked to rate their satisfaction on a 7-point scale, patients reported highest satisfaction when care was received from their own family doctor (6.1), followed by an after-hours clinic affiliated with their doctor (5.6). Those who received care at a walk-in clinic or who used more than one service reported the lowest satisfaction rating (4.7).

Implications

• As health systems emphasize improved access to medical care and ongoing patient care, this study can inform the development of new models of after-hours care.
• The authors suggest that these findings support increasing financial and human resources to increase access to practice-based primary care services.