Patient satisfaction with access and continuity of care in a multidisciplinary academic family medicine clinic.

OBJECTIVE To determine patient satisfaction with care provided at a family medicine teaching clinic. DESIGN Mailed survey. SETTING Victoria Family Medical Centre in London, Ont. PARTICIPANTS Stratified random sample of 600 regular patients of the clinic aged 18 years or older; 301 responses were received. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Patient satisfaction with overall care, wait times for appointments, contact with physicians, and associated demographic factors. Logistic regression analysis and analysis were used to determine the significance of factors associated with satisfaction. RESULTS The response rate was 50%. Overall, 88% of respondents were fairly, very, or completely satisfied with care. Older patients tended to be more satisfied. Patients who were less satisfied had longer wait times for appointments (P < .001) and reduced continuity with specific doctors (P = .004). More satisfied patients also felt connected through other members of the health care team. CONCLUSION Patients were generally satisfied with the care provided at the family medicine teaching clinic. Older patients tended to be more satisfied than younger patients. Points of dissatisfaction were related to wait times for appointments and continuity with patients' usual doctors. These findings support the adoption of practices that reduce wait times and facilitate continuity with patients' usual doctors and other regular members of the health care team.