[Health care satisfaction. From the perspective of patients].

BACKGROUND

patient's health care satisfaction is the most important element in the evaluation of the health care quality. Nevertheless, there is still no agreement regarding which aspects from this phenomenon should be measured.

OBJECTIVE

to describe which aspects integrate health care satisfaction from the patient perspective.

METHODS

a descriptive study was held with a qualitative technique. The cultural aspects were determined in the patients first medical examination in Mexico's General Hospital trough two structured interviews. Multidimensional Scaling and the Smith's Index was used for the data analysis.

RESULTS

95 patients were been interviewed, 71.4 % were women, and according to the statistic method used, the 52 concepts mentioned by the patients were integrated in two dimensions. The dimension "the Process" included patients expectations regarding the physician's commitment to their healing and constant training process. The dimension "the Structure" was concerned with the administrative management of the hospital. Patients also pointed out the need to improve their interaction with the nurse personnel.

CONCLUSIONS

health care satisfaction from the patients perspective is based upon attitude, and the physician's commitment and his/her developmental skills in benefit of the patient's healing.