Who is satisfied with general surgery clinic visits?

BACKGROUND Patient satisfaction is an important patient outcome because it informs researchers and practitioners about patients' experience and identifies potential problems with their care. Patient satisfaction is typically studied through physician-patient interactions in primary care settings, and little is known about satisfaction with surgical consultations. METHODS Participants responded to questionnaires before and after a surgical consultation. The study was conducted in a diverse outpatient clinic within a county hospital in Southern California. Participants were patients who came to the surgery clinic for their first appointment after referral from a primary care provider for a surgical consultation. RESULTS Patients' ethnicity, educational attainment, and insurance status predict their satisfaction, and patients reliably differed in their satisfaction with care providers and with the hospital where they received their care. CONCLUSIONS These findings add to knowledge about patient care by highlighting associations between patients' demographic characteristics and patients' differential satisfaction with particular entities within the context of surgical care.