[Patient satisfaction in the Spanish National Health System]

Abstract

Background: Determine which key indicators of the Spanish National Health Service (NHS) influence patient satisfaction with the Spanish NHS and physicians (family doctors and specialists).

Method: The mean for each indicator for each autonomous community, published by the Ministry of Health, Social Services and Equality, corresponding to the years 2005 to 2014, was related to patient satisfaction by means of multiple linear regression.

Results: Patient satisfaction with the NHS was ascertained at 57.32%, with general practitioners at 54.45% and specialist doctors at 55.11%. In the three types of satisfaction, the number of specialist doctors, hospital admissions and in-hospital mortality had a positive and significant influence, while the number of surgical interventions had a negative influence. The greater use of computerized tomography equipment and the hospital infection rate had a negative effect on satisfaction with the NHS and with specialist physicians, while the percentage of outpatient surgery had a positive effect. The average hospital stay shows a negative relationship with satisfaction with family doctors and specialists.

Conclusions: Health policies should consider an increase in the number of medical specialists, favour ambulatory surgery, facilitate hospital treatment, monitor the effectiveness of surgical interventions, control hospital infections and moderate the prescription of drugs through the use of alternatives in order to increase patient satisfaction.

Keywords: Patient satisfaction. National Health Service. Quality of health care. Health policy. Health resources..