Understanding quality and satisfaction in public hospital services: A nationwide inpatient survey in Greece

Health services compared to the most of other sectors' customer services present some special traits, such as extreme complexity, co-production, and intangibility, while financial and human consequences of low quality are high. This study reports on the findings of a nationwide HCAHPS questionnaire survey conducted in Greece after the implementation of the health system reform due to the financial crisis regarding the factors determining inpatient satisfaction in public hospitals. HCAHPS data were initially analysed by factor analysis followed by an ordinal regression analysis, which aimed to identify the determinants with significant impact on inpatient satisfaction. The study results are consistent with prior research which indicated that the communication with nurses is the most salient predictor of overall patients' satisfaction followed by communication with doctors. Moreover, certain patient (age and health status) and hospital institutional (type and location) characteristics also contribute significantly to patients' perceived overall satisfaction. Hence, health quality improvement activities should consider the critical differences among patient subgroups and hospital types in order to fulfil consumer needs and preferences more effectively.