Patient satisfaction with services provided by multidisciplinary anticoagulation clinics.

STUDY OBJECTIVE

To assess patients' perception of care delivery by anticoagulation clinics (ACs) throughout Alberta, Canada.

DESIGN

Prospective postal survey.

SETTING

Therapy provision by an AC to ambulatory-based patients for a minimum of 3 months across the province.

PATIENTS

A total of 1687 patients (67.9%) receiving warfarin therapy from 6 ACs for a minimum of 3 months responded.

MEASUREMENT AND MAIN RESULTS

The 25-item survey had responses grouped into domains of patient preference, knowledge, and service delivery. A 5-point Likert scale enabled each response to be assigned a numerical value from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). Overall, the mean response for patient satisfaction was 4.54, indicating most patients were satisfied with the AC care they received. Among those who had received care outside of an AC, 70.4% preferred AC care compared with 18.4% for family physician care. Mean responses for knowledge and service delivery exceeded 4.0, demonstrating positive responses in favor of AC care.

CONCLUSIONS

This study demonstrates that most patients were greatly satisfied with AC care and preferred the care received from an AC to that provided by their family physician. Service delivery across Alberta is well perceived by patients.