Family/patient satisfaction is an important indicator of quality of care in pediatrics. Satisfaction survey data are being used for several purposes in health care, including quality improvement initiatives and managed care PCP reimbursement schemes. Little is known about the impact of chronic pediatric health conditions (e.g. asthma) on parental satisfaction ratings of their child's PCP. Herein we report the results of a satisfaction survey administered to parents of young asthmatic and non-asthmatic children. Child Quest 2000, a comprehensive survey of child health status, access to care, health service utilization, and parental health knowledge, attitudes and practices, was mailed to a randomly selected sample of 1,098 families of children aged 6-36 months who had received care in a statewide system of ten hospital-operated primary care pediatric practices targeting underserved children in Delaware. The survey contains several questions assessing parental satisfaction with the care delivered by their child's PCP including ratings in the following categories: politeness, listening, thoroughness, appropriate explanation, timeliness and respect. This report is based on the analysis of data from 323/1098 surveys returned. The health insurance status of these respondents (Medicaid 66%; private insur. 23%; self-pay 10%) closely parallels the insurance profile of the families served by the system statewide. The respondents were separated into two groups based on whether they reported the child to have “asthma/bronchitis” or not. Using linear regression models, the responses to each care satisfaction question were compared between the two groups.
Results: Parents of children with asthma/bronchitis were significantly less satisfied with the care received from their PCP in the following dimensions (p-values): provider politeness (.24); how well provider listened (.041); wait time in office before being seen (.032); and respect shown by the provider (.004). There were no significant differences in satisfaction ratings between groups with regard to politeness of office staff, provider's explanation of care, completeness of care, wait for appointment, or respect shown by the office staff.
