Meeting expectations and satisfaction with the consultation in family medicine

Abstract

Objectives: To characterize patient expectations in Family Medicine visits, and to identify the relationship between meeting them and the satisfaction at the end of the visit. Design: Observational, longitudinal. Setting: Oeiras Health Center. Patients: Adults who visited eight family doctors. Methods: During one week, patients were alternately selected when they contacted the secretary and invited to participate.A pre-office visit questionnaire was given, where patients were asked to select their expectations from a list of ten possibilities. After the visit, patients filled out a satisfaction questionnaire and another identifying what had been done by the doctor. Results: 137 patients completed the initial questionnaire and 111 completed the final questionnaire. Each patient reported, on average, five expectations. From a total of 700 expectations, 63.1% were related to obtaining information, and 36.9% to the physicians actions. The most frequent expectations dealt with information about the physical examination (73.0%), having a physical examination (68.6%), and information about treatment (67.2%). The rate of expectations met was 77.2% and median satisfaction was 83.3%.We found a positive correlation between meeting expectations and office visit satisfaction (r=.468, p<0.01),which remained significant after adjustment for sex and educational status.After controlling for these factors, the variance in satisfaction explained by met expectations was 23.2%. Conclusions: Patients most often expect doctors to perform a physical examination and give them information about what they find. Most expectations are met by doctors, but almost all patients leave with at least one unmet expectation. Satisfaction at the end of the visit is high and positively correlates with the meeting of their expectations.