Satisfaction with inpatient care in a population-based Hong Kong Chinese sample.

OBJECTIVE

To measure self-reported inpatient experience in Hong Kong.

DESIGN

Data were derived from the 2005 Thematic Household Survey.

SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS

24,364 non-institutional and 3390 institutionalised respondents aged at least 18 years systematically drawn to represent the Hong Kong adult population, 6.9% of whom were admitted at least once as an inpatient during the previous 12 months. Data from this group was analysed.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE

Picker Patient Experience Questionnaire-15.

RESULTS

Overall, respondents scored their last inpatient episode 39.6 (range=0-100, the lower the score, the better the patient experience). Patients who sought care from private hospitals reported a lower Picker Patient Experience Questionnaire-15 score than those cared for in public facilities (31.1 vs 41.8 respectively, p<0.001). We observed substantial differences between public hospital geographic clusters that were confirmed by multivariable regression. When benchmarked against the UK, Germany and the USA, Hong Kong patients tended to report a significantly higher number of problems.

CONCLUSIONS

We found systematic differences between the level of satisfaction and type of problems reported by Hong Kong Chinese compared to those in Euro-American settings. The observed heterogeneities among different public hospitals, between the private and public sectors, and among subgroups of inpatients should provide an evidence based on which quality improvement initiatives can be designed and evaluated.