Satisfaction of patients in two Air Force family practice programs

Abstract

This study was carried out to determine of patients enrolled in family practice clinics were satisfied with their care and to ascertain if there was a difference in the level of satisfaction between two groups of family practice patients: one group at a teaching medical center and the other at a general acute care community hospital. The overwhelming majority of family practice patients surveyed were extremely satisfied with the care they were receiving. The prime reasons for this satisfaction were physician continuity (having one physician for the whole family), personal attention, and having levels of satisfaction between the groups at a teaching and a non-teaching facility. Overall, families that had received preventive health instructions from their physician had a stronger desire to remain with family practice and had fewer dislikes about the program than did the group of patients who had not received any preventive health instructions from their physician.