Promoting the development of tertiary hospitals through satisfaction surveys
Chuanji Guo, Jiakai Guo, Qiyong Guo*
Hospital Administrative Office of Shengjing Hospital, Shenyang 110004, Liaoning Province, China
ABSTRACT
Background: It has been reported that there is a positive correlation between job satisfaction and the productivity of staff members. Measuring satisfaction has been widely adopted as an indicator of the medical quality of hospitals. Methods: This was a 6-year satisfaction survey from 2014 to 2019 of 11,045 participants, which included outpatients (5609 participants), inpatients (3647 participants), hospital staff (1647 participants), and relevant social institutions (142 participants). The average score of each questionnaire was calculated for the last score. Results: The satisfaction scores of outpatients and inpatients gradually increased over the years. Inpatients rated their satisfaction higher than outpatients did. The salary and welfare scores for hospital staff were significantly lower than other indicators. The survey of relevant relevant social institutions showed a wave change trend. Conclusions: This study examined feedback on hospital experience and evaluated of the quality of medical administration via six years of hospital satisfaction surveys. The hospital administrative office used the feedback from the surveys to direct substantial administrative work, thereby improving the quality of hospital services and development through satisfaction surveys.
Keywords: Satisfaction surveys; Hospital development
Address for correspondence:
Qiyong Guo, E-mail: guoqy@sj-hospital.org
For reprints contact: reprints@sppub.org
Received 09 October 2021; Accepted 05 January 2022; Available online 25 July 2022
INTRODUCTION
Hospital staff put a lot of effort into routine hospital work. It has been also reported that there is a positive correlation between job satisfaction and the productivity of professionals, including hospital staff.[1] Feedback from hospital staff is helpful for improving hospital services. The opinions of hospital relevant social institutions, such as cooperative and supervising departments, are also indispensable.[2] These are all important sources of information for screening problems and developing an effective plan of action for quality improvement in hospitals.[3] Measuring satisfaction has become the method of choice for obtaining views about medical services and has been adopted widely as an indicator of the medical quality of hospitals.[4,5]
In this study, to recognize the inadequacies and improve the service quality of tertiary hospitals, a third party (Minxin network work platform was founded on May 21, 2004, and was jointly created by The Liaoning Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection, the Provincial Supervision Department, and the Provincial Government’s Office of Rectification of Ethics) was invited to design surveys to evaluate the satisfaction levels at a hospital for six years (2014–2019). The hospital was a tertiary hospital with up to 4.71 million outpatients in 2019 (Table 1). This was the first comprehensive hospital satisfaction survey that included outpatients, inpatients, hospital staff and relevant social institutions. In response to the survey results, the hospital administrative office recognized inadequacies and improved the quality of their services. The hospital gradually improved over the 6 years of the study with the guidance of the survey results.
2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | |
Number of Outpatients | 3,487,307 | 3,664,354 | 4,177,817 | 4,409,140 | 4,455,901 | 4,718,183 |
number of Inpatients | 198,662 | 206,420 | 228,424 | 236,879 | 248,206 | 256,469 |
MATERIAL AND METHODS
Study Design and Setting
This was a 6-year satisfaction survey of 11,045 participants from 2014 to 2019. The participants included four groups, outpatients, inpatients, hospital staff and relevant social institutions. The outpatients (5609 participants) were randomly selected from hospital clinic patients and emergency patients. The inpatients (3647 participants) included patients undergoing treatment and patients who have been discharged from the hospital. The hospital staff (1647 participants) were from Shenjing Hospital, mainly from three departments (administrative staff, medical staff and support staff). Relevant social institutions (142 participants) were from health administrative offices, referral health facilities, social labor security supervision departments and medical insurance departments.
The survey items were designed by a third party after an extensive review of the pertinent literature[6] and actual situation of hospital, such as the number of patients, The proportion of various types of employees and Relevant social institutions. Satisfaction score was from 0-point to 100-points, the higher the score, the higher the satisfaction. The average score of each Questionnaire was calculated for the last score. The Cronbach alpha coefficients of the surveys were over 0.7.
As hospital-supervising government departments were included in the relevant social institutions group and the characteristics of government agents are confidential, the characteristics of this group were excluded.
Inclusion and Exclusion Criteria
Patients with serious physical or mental diseases, such as terminal diseases or psychosis that could make comprehension and completion of the survey difficult, were also excluded.
Data collection
All the data were collected by a third party. All participants were approached by independent, trained, third-party research assistants. The assistants explained the purpose of the study onsite when the participants agreed to participate in the study. The survey was done face to face.
RESULTS
From 2014 to 2019, the hospital’s outpatients increased from 3.48 million to 4.71 million and the inpatients increased from 190,000 to 256,000 (Table 1). The demographic characteristics of participants are summarized in Table 2A, 2B, and 2C. The number of participants in each group for every year is shown.
(Table 2A) For the outpatient survey, the proportion of women was nearly 2 times that of men. Most participants were less than 30 and 31–40 years old. Most of the respondents were local residents in Shenyang (above 80%). In the educational level, the proportion of College/Undergraduate or above is more than 50%. More than half people who participated in the survey had a monthly income greater than 2000 yuan. Regarding occupational composition, the highest proportion were employees of a business enterprise, followed by unemployed, students, retirees, and employees of government departments and institutions.
Characteristic | 2014 n = 888 | 2015 n = 920 | 2016 n = 920 | 2017 n = 923 | 2018 n = 923 | 2019 n = 1034 | ||||||
Age(years) | ||||||||||||
<30 | 281 | 32% | 316 | 34% | 269 | 29% | 245 | 27% | 284 | 31% | 327 | 32% |
31-40 | 306 | 33% | 332 | 36% | 338 | 37% | 333 | 36% | 344 | 33% | ||
41-50 | 540 | 61% | 146 | 16% | 147 | 16% | 119 | 13% | 129 | 14% | 133 | 13% |
51-60 | 78 | 8% | 79 | 9% | 88 | 10% | 82 | 9% | 92 | 9% | ||
>60 | 67 | 8% | 74 | 8% | 68 | 7% | 67 | 7% | 61 | 7% | 85 | 8% |
Refuse to answer | 0 | N/D | 0 | N/D | 25 | 3% | 66 | 7% | 34 | 4% | 53 | 5% |
Sex | ||||||||||||
Male | 308 | 35% | 367 | 40% | 375 | 41% | 308 | 33% | 363 | 39% | 385 | 37% |
Female | 580 | 65% | 553 | 60% | 545 | 59% | 615 | 67% | 561 | 61% | 647 | 63% |
Residence | ||||||||||||
Shenyang | 742 | 84% | 836 | 91% | 794 | 86% | 760 | 82% | 756 | 82% | 881 | 85% |
Liaoning | 113 | 13% | 65 | 7% | 103 | 11% | 105 | 11% | 126 | 14% | 109 | 11% |
Out of Liaoning | 33 | 4% | 19 | 2% | 23 | 3% | 58 | 6% | 42 | 5% | 44 | 4% |
Education level | ||||||||||||
Junior high school and below | 132 | 15% | 187 | 20% | 155 | 17% | 172 | 19% | 153 | 17% | 174 | 17% |
High school/technical school | 194 | 22% | 217 | 24% | 191 | 21% | 148 | 16% | 194 | 21% | 213 | 21% |
College/Undergraduate | 520 | 59% | 459 | 50% | 459 | 50% | 430 | 47% | 485 | 53% | 489 | 47% |
Postgraduate and above | 42 | 5% | 57 | 6% | 54 | 6% | 49 | 5% | 46 | 5% | 40 | 4% |
Refuse to answer | 0 | N/D | 0 | N/D | 61 | 7% | 124 | 13% | 46 | 5% | 118 | 11% |
Monthly income(yuan) | ||||||||||||
<1000 | 43 | 5% | 74 | 8% | 45 | 5% | 43 | 5% | 42 | 5% | 47 | 5% |
1001-2000 | 123 | 14% | 123 | 13% | 76 | 8% | 62 | 7% | 66 | 7% | 69 | 7% |
2001-3000 | 245 | 28% | 237 | 26% | 215 | 23% | 147 | 16% | 150 | 16% | 138 | 13% |
3001-4500 | 216 | 24% | 256 | 28% | 186 | 20% | 173 | 19% | 202 | 22% | 188 | 18% |
>4500 | 261 | 29% | 230 | 25% | 236 | 26% | 288 | 31% | 354 | 38% | 339 | 33% |
Refuse to answer | 0 | N/D | 0 | N/D | 162 | 18% | 210 | 23% | 110 | 12% | 253 | 24% |
Ocupation | ||||||||||||
Employees of government department and institution | 137 | 15% | 151 | 16% | 138 | 15% | 126 | 14% | 145 | 16% | 126 | 12% |
Employees of business enterprise | 251 | 28% | 237 | 26% | 205 | 22% | 184 | 20% | 204 | 22% | 204 | 20% |
Farmers | 45 | 5% | 67 | 7% | 58 | 6% | 76 | 8% | 70 | 8% | 59 | 6% |
Unemployed, students, retirees | 181 | 20% | 226 | 25% | 201 | 22% | 191 | 21% | 208 | 23% | 247 | 24% |
Others | 274 | 31% | 239 | 26% | 247 | 27% | 219 | 24% | 240 | 26% | 273 | 26% |
Refuse to answer | 0 | N/D | 0 | N/D | 71 | 8% | 127 | 14% | 57 | 6% | 125 | 12% |
N/D is no data. |
Characteristic | 2014 n = 509 | 2015 n = 615 | 2016 n = 641 | 2017 n = 600 | 2018 n = 597 | 2019 n = 685 | ||||||
Age(years) | ||||||||||||
<30 | 80 | 16% | 141 | 23% | 140 | 22% | 99 | 17% | 95 | 16% | 97 | 14% |
31-40 | 160 | 26% | 147 | 23% | 202 | 34% | 137 | 23% | 149 | 22% | ||
41-50 | 335 | 66% | 114 | 19% | 95 | 15% | 100 | 17% | 93 | 16% | 104 | 15% |
51-60 | 105 | 17% | 72 | 11% | 85 | 14% | 92 | 15% | 125 | 18% | ||
>60 | 94 | 18% | 95 | 15% | 62 | 10% | 66 | 11% | 119 | 20% | 161 | 24% |
Refuse to answer | 0 | N/D | 0 | N/D | 125 | 20% | 48 | 8% | 61 | 10% | 49 | 7% |
Sex | ||||||||||||
Male | 222 | 44% | 267 | 43% | 275 | 43% | 254 | 42% | 246 | 41% | 305 | 45% |
Female | 277 | 54% | 348 | 57% | 366 | 57% | 346 | 58% | 351 | 59% | 380 | 55% |
Residence | ||||||||||||
Shenyang | 400 | 79% | 445 | 72% | 411 | 64% | 334 | 56% | 448 | 75% | 452 | 66% |
Liaoning | 80 | 16% | 149 | 24% | 189 | 29% | 236 | 39% | 131 | 22% | 201 | 29% |
Out of Liaoning | 29 | 6% | 21 | 3% | 41 | 6% | 30 | 5% | 18 | 3% | 32 | 5% |
Education level | ||||||||||||
Junior high school and below | 125 | 25% | 243 | 40% | 162 | 25% | 129 | 22% | 127 | 21% | 207 | 30% |
High school/technical school | 173 | 34% | 160 | 26% | 75 | 12% | 101 | 17% | 101 | 17% | 134 | 20% |
College/Undergraduate | 198 | 39% | 189 | 31% | 187 | 29% | 176 | 29% | 199 | 33% | 223 | 33% |
Postgraduate and above | 13 | 3% | 23 | 4% | 21 | 3% | 13 | 2% | 12 | 2% | 20 | 3% |
Refuse to answer | 0 | N/D | 0 | N/D | 196 | 31% | 181 | 30% | 158 | 26% | 101 | 15% |
Monthly income (yuan) | ||||||||||||
<1000 | 39 | 8% | 56 | 9% | 36 | 6% | 27 | 5% | 22 | 4% | 38 | 6% |
1001-2000 | 70 | 14% | 87 | 14% | 42 | 7% | 37 | 6% | 30 | 5% | 48 | 7% |
2001-3000 | 179 | 35% | 153 | 25% | 68 | 11% | 77 | 13% | 50 | 8% | 101 | 15% |
3001-4500 | 134 | 26% | 152 | 25% | 68 | 11% | 66 | 11% | 93 | 16% | 95 | 14% |
>4500 | 87 | 17% | 169 | 27% | 89 | 14% | 110 | 18% | 140 | 23% | 184 | 27% |
Refuse to answer | 0 | N/D | 0 | N/D | 338 | 53% | 283 | 47% | 262 | 44% | 219 | 32% |
Ocupation | ||||||||||||
Employees of government department and institution | 66 | 13% | 87 | 14% | 75 | 12% | 52 | 9% | 48 | 8% | 97 | 14% |
Employees of business enterprise | 102 | 20% | 91 | 15% | 84 | 13% | 69 | 12% | 96 | 16% | 71 | 10% |
Farmers | 48 | 9% | 63 | 10% | 52 | 8% | 56 | 9% | 48 | 8% | 94 | 14% |
Unemployed, students, retirees | 109 | 21% | 179 | 29% | 131 | 20% | 95 | 16% | 141 | 24% | 171 | 25% |
Others | 184 | 36% | 195 | 32% | 106 | 17% | 151 | 25% | 99 | 17% | 164 | 24% |
Refuse to answer | 0 | N/D | 0 | N/D | 193 | 30% | 177 | 30% | 165 | 28% | 88 | 13% |
N/D is no data. |
Characteristic | 2014 n = 244 | 2015 n = 278 | 2016 n = 245 | 2017 n = 255 | 2018 n = 247 | 2019 n = 378 | ||||||
Age(years) | ||||||||||||
<30 | 67 | 27% | 117 | 42% | 95 | 39% | 71 | 28% | 69 | 28% | 95 | 25% |
31-40 | 110 | 40% | 112 | 46% | 128 | 50% | 128 | 52% | 199 | 53% | ||
41-50 | 177 | 73% | 34 | 12% | 23 | 9% | 32 | 13% | 33 | 13% | 54 | 14% |
51-60 | 17 | 6% | 15 | 6% | 19 | 7% | 17 | 7% | 27 | 7% | ||
>60 | 0 | N/D | 0 | N/D | 0 | 0% | 5 | 2% | 0 | 0% | 3 | 1% |
Sex | ||||||||||||
Male | 44 | 18% | 49 | 18% | 36 | 15% | 45 | 18% | 53 | 21% | 90 | 24% |
Female | 200 | 82% | 229 | 82% | 209 | 85% | 210 | 82% | 194 | 79% | 287 | 76% |
Education level | ||||||||||||
Junior high school and below | N/D | N/D | N/D | N/D | 4 | 2% | 7 | 3% | 2 | 1% | 10 | 3% |
High school/technical school | N/D | N/D | N/D | N/D | 161 | 66% | 156 | 61% | 169 | 68% | 264 | 70% |
College/Undergraduate | N/D | N/D | N/D | N/D | 54 | 22% | 55 | 22% | 43 | 17% | 66 | 17% |
Postgraduate and above | N/D | N/D | N/D | N/D | 26 | 11% | 37 | 15% | 33 | 13% | 38 | 10% |
Answered by | ||||||||||||
Administrative staff | 24 | 10% | 22 | 8% | 12 | 5% | 23 | 9% | 16 | 6% | 8 | 2% |
Medical staff | 186 | 76% | 190 | 68% | 190 | 78% | 182 | 71% | 164 | 66% | 279 | 74% |
Supporting staff | 34 | 14% | 66 | 24% | 43 | 18% | 50 | 20% | 67 | 27% | 73 | 19% |
N/D is the data missing due to the fine-tuning of the annual questionnaire. |
In the inpatient survey, the proportion of women was still higher than men. Most participants were 31–40 years old, followed by 41–50 years old, then 51–60 years old, and less than 30 years old. Compared with the outpatient survey, residents from other cities increased, but local residents still accounted a much high proportion. The majority of the participants had a monthly income between 2000 yuan and 4500 yuan.
Table 2C shows that most hospital employees participating in the survey were under 40 years old and the proportion of female participants was much larger than that of male participants. Most had a college/undergraduate level of education and were medical staff.
The items and results of the satisfaction surveys in each group are shown in Table 3A, 3B, 3C, and 3D. The satisfaction scores of outpatients and inpatients gradually increased. The outpatient and inpatient surveys included six parts: quality, price, image, expectation, satisfaction, and loyalty (Table 3A, Table 3B). The satisfaction of inpatients over the years was higher than that of outpatients.
Primary indicators | Secondary indicators | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 |
Quality | 77.18 | 77.81 | 81.31 | 79.91 | 82.77 | 83.01 | |
Medical service | 77.50 | 78.12 | 81.47 | 80.18 | 83.02 | 83.25 | |
Ancillary services | 76.56 | 77.01 | 80.92 | 79.23 | 82.14 | 82.40 | |
Medical environment | 77.32 | 79.48 | 82.02 | 80.63 | 82.21 | 83.11 | |
Price | 77.14 | 77.35 | 81.85 | 80.20 | 81.49 | 83.23 | |
Clear cost list | 77.14 | 77.35 | 81.85 | 80.20 | 81.49 | 83.23 | |
Image | 77.48 | 77.70 | 78.80 | 76.57 | 79.74 | 80.49 | |
Public recognition | 82.93 | 83.81 | 84.31 | 83.29 | 85.95 | 86.44 | |
Public welfare | 75.25 | 78.58 | 78.21 | 76.08 | 79.70 | 79.85 | |
Pay attention to patients | 72.45 | 75.80 | 84.31 | 83.22 | 77.90 | 78.84 | |
Expectation | 76.56 | 76.80 | 78.31 | 76.94 | 79.33 | 78.58 | |
Current acceptance | 78.94 | 78.60 | 79.74 | 79.24 | 81.06 | 81.04 | |
Gap with the ideal | 73.00 | 74.99 | 76.87 | 74.65 | 77.60 | 76.11 | |
Satisfaction | 76.49 | 76.36 | 78.14 | 79.83 | 82.04 | 81.68 | |
Overall impression | 76.19 | 76.09 | 77.88 | 80.71 | 82.74 | 82.89 | |
Compare with peers | 76.94 | 76.91 | 78.64 | 78.13 | 80.69 | 79.34 | |
loyalty | 79.55 | 80.41 | 81.31 | 80.26 | 82.71 | 82.42 | |
Come again | 79.44 | 80.28 | 80.9 | 80.00 | 82.32 | 83.11 | |
Confidence for the future | 79.73 | 80.53 | 81.72 | 80.53 | 83.10 | 81.72 | |
Overall satisfaction | 77.38 | 77.67 | 80.24 | 79.18 | 81.67 | 81.96 |
Primary indicators | Secondary indicators | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 |
Quality | 81.16 | 82.43 | 85.27 | 86.05 | 85.88 | 88.29 | |
medical service | 81.96 | 82.52 | 85.87 | 86.93 | 85.91 | 89.19 | |
Ancillary services | 79.55 | 82.21 | 83.87 | 84.02 | 85.79 | 86.18 | |
Medical environment | 81.56 | 84.49 | 86.45 | 88.04 | 86.73 | 90.10 | |
Value | 80.00 | 80.72 | 82.34 | 86.08 | 82.74 | 86.60 | |
Clear cost list | 80.00 | 80.72 | 82.34 | 86.08 | 82.74 | 86.60 | |
Hospital image | 82.30 | 82.70 | 82.61 | 84.81 | 84.20 | 86.68 | |
Public recognition | 85.11 | 85.20 | 85.98 | 88.75 | 86.25 | 89.49 | |
Public welfare | 80.71 | 82.53 | 82.89 | 84.80 | 83.75 | 86.80 | |
Pay attention to patients | 80.16 | 81.99 | 81.55 | 83.64 | 83.68 | 85.81 | |
Expectation | 80.75 | 80.52 | 80.20 | 82.99 | 82.94 | 84.23 | |
Current acceptance | 82.51 | 81.47 | 82.06 | 83.19 | 83.14 | 85.34 | |
Gap with the ideal | 78.11 | 79.57 | 78.34 | 82.80 | 82.74 | 83.12 | |
Satisfaction | 81.21 | 81.78 | 84.33 | 86.36 | 84.11 | 86.62 | |
Overall impression | 80.15 | 81.68 | 85.48 | 87.30 | 84.09 | 86.90 | |
Compare with peers | 82.79 | 81.99 | 81.99 | 84.50 | 84.15 | 86.04 | |
Loyalty | 82.07 | 82.93 | 83.07 | 84.17 | 84.11 | 86.16 | |
Choose this hospital again | 82.32 | 82.55 | 83.52 | 84.62 | 84.41 | 86.16 | |
Confidence for the future | 81.69 | 83.31 | 82.63 | 83.72 | 83.81 | 86.22 | |
Overall satisfaction | 83.56 | 85.43 | 84.42 | 86.92 | 84.42 | 81.96 |
2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | |
Working enviro nment | 80.02 | 83.21 | 82.73 | 83.10 | 83.10 | 87.62 |
Working environment | 86.39 | 86.33 | 84.81 | 85.73 | 85.99 | 90.63 |
Resource provision | 84.18 | 82.67 | 83.95 | 83.61 | 83.81 | 88.68 |
Convenience of office equipment | 82.79 | 84.39 | 82.40 | 83.29 | 82.02 | 87.67 |
Waste of office supplies | 65.57 | 77.32 | 76.48 | 79.76 | 81.62 | 83.49 |
Cooperates | 85.16 | 85.36 | 86.00 | 87.22 | 86.23 | 89.47 |
Work arrangements | 84.54 | 85.62 | 84.32 | 84.33 | 84.99 | 86.71 |
Job suitability | 86.89 | 87.87 | 85.84 | 87.37 | 87.85 | 90.58 |
Personal value | 82.70 | 83.09 | 81.21 | 83.45 | 82.83 | 87.35 |
Challenging work | 76.89 | 79.21 | 77.84 | 77.56 | 79.03 | 82.60 |
Responsibilities and rights | 87.05 | 89.41 | 88.50 | 87.22 | 89.31 | 90.74 |
Intensity of work | 80.41 | 81.73 | 82.42 | 78.12 | 78.06 | 73.76 |
Importance of work | 88.93 | 90.84 | 89.05 | 90.00 | 90.36 | 91.64 |
Work-extended learning | 86.07 | 87.20 | 85.34 | 86.61 | 87.45 | 89.31 |
Salary and Welfare | 70.84 | 71.30 | 71.77 | 74.77 | 74.77 | 78.48 |
Compatibility of salary with work | 67.79 | 68.55 | 70.90 | 72.94 | 71.58 | 78.36 |
Incentive effect of salary system | 71.15 | 71.19 | 71.59 | 75.84 | 73.68 | 79.37 |
Satisfaction with benefits | 81.15 | 79.28 | 78.20 | 81.26 | 81.86 | 83.33 |
Salary and benefits level | 64.67 | 66.19 | 66.38 | 69.02 | 68.74 | 72.86 |
Career Development | 84.30 | 79.47 | 79.43 | 81.27 | 81.27 | 84.86 |
Training satisfaction | 82.43 | 81.52 | 82.11 | 85.36 | 82.38 | 86.20 |
Work development space | 83.03 | 83.10 | 83.18 | 82.20 | 82.83 | 86.83 |
Work recognized | 78.44 | 81.75 | 78.37 | 81.18 | 81.38 | 84.66 |
Job promotion system | 73.93 | 71.51 | 71.47 | 75.51 | 73.85 | 80.53 |
Hospital management | 86.50 | 84.19 | 83.27 | 84.50 | 84.50 | 87.93 |
Cultural Construction | 87.79 | 88.01 | 86.01 | 87.29 | 87.29 | 89.63 |
Activities | 84.18 | 85.76 | 83.52 | 85.25 | 85.67 | 88.20 |
Activity effect | 82.95 | 83.47 | 82.92 | 84.86 | 84.70 | 87.88 |
Rules and regulations | 85.57 | 84.42 | N/D | N/D | N/D | N/D |
Clear process | 84.51 | 84.03 | 83.35 | 83.78 | 83.81 | 87.67 |
Rewards and punishments | 80.93 | 80.51 | 81.12 | 82.90 | 82.51 | 85.93 |
System execution | 84.92 | N/D | 83.18 | 83.76 | 84.45 | 87.09 |
Management services | 83.28 | 83.16 | 83.26 | 81.09 | 84.70 | 88.60 |
Trust in the hospital | 81.83 | 84.64 | 83.16 | 85.36 | 85.36 | 88.33 |
Sense of belonging | 91.07 | 89.31 | 88.10 | 89.10 | 89.64 | 91.96 |
Recognition of positions | 78.85 | 77.39 | 74.72 | 81.25 | 79.68 | 83.76 |
The hospital fulfills its promise | 86.64 | 84.06 | 83.20 | 85.02 | 85.10 | 88.04 |
Leaders care about employees | 85.66 | 87.05 | 84.40 | 86.67 | 85.75 | 91.43 |
Employee pride | 89.02 | 88.48 | 87.33 | 87.45 | 88.10 | 90.00 |
Dedication of employees | 86.15 | 81.52 | 81.22 | 82.69 | 83.40 | 84.81 |
Overall employee satisfaction | 81.83 | 80.11 | 79.60 | 81.09 | 81.00 | 84.48 |
N/D is no data. |
The survey of hospital staff consisted of six parts: working environment, work arrangements, salary and welfare, career development, hospital management and trust in the hospital (Table 3C). The salary and welfare scores are significantly lower than other indicators. All the indicator’s scores were low in 2016 and steadily increased after 2017. Of the indicators, work arrangements, trust in the hospital, hospital management and working environment are above the average score. Career development decreased significantly in 2015 (Figure 1).
Figure 1: Satisfaction of hospital staffs.
The survey of relevant social institutions contained 14 parts, shown in Table 3D. All indicators have the same wave change trend of declining in 2015, 2016, 2018 and rising in 2017, 2019 (Table 3D).
2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | |
Hospital management | 99.33 | 94.67 | 92.00 | 100.00 | 94.00 | 96.00 |
Medical service | 95.33 | 93.33 | 91.33 | 98.00 | 92.67 | 96.00 |
Techinique level | 96.00 | 92.67 | 90.67 | 98.67 | 93.33 | 96.67 |
Medical equipment | 97.33 | 94.67 | 92.67 | 97.33 | 92.00 | 96.67 |
Service attitude | 92.67 | 89.33 | 90.00 | 94.00 | 89.33 | 96.00 |
Medical ethics | 93.33 | 87.33 | 90.00 | 94.00 | 91.33 | 97.33 |
Accept supervision | 94.00 | 90.00 | 92.00 | 98.67 | 92.67 | 96.67 |
Cooperation | 94.67 | 89.33 | 91.33 | 99.33 | 94.00 | 98.00 |
Regional development contribution | 96.00 | 88.00 | 93.33 | 99.33 | 89.33 | 94.67 |
Rank in the same industry | 96.00 | 92.67 | 89.33 | 96.67 | 88.67 | 92.67 |
Social Responsibility | 93.33 | 90.00 | 88.67 | 98.00 | 90.67 | 98.67 |
Integrity | 93.33 | 92.00 | 90.00 | 98.00 | 92.67 | 98.00 |
Overall evaluation | 94.00 | 92.67 | 92.00 | 98.67 | 93.33 | 97.33 |
Overall satisfaction | 95.02 | 91.70 | 91.03 | 97.74 | 92.00 | 96.51 |
DISCUSSION
This study examined feedback about hospital experience and evaluated the quality of medical administration via 6-year hospital satisfaction surveys. These surveys included patients, hospital staff and coherent units. This was the first time a satisfaction survey of a large hospital in China simultaneously included patients, hospital staff and relevant social institutions. The relevant social institutions included insurance and hospital-supervising government departments. As these units are in contact with multiple types of hospitals, their responses were indicative of where the hospital in this study stood in relation to the medical society in China. Properly considering the opinions of the participants on the various administrative aspects of the hospital would result in improvement. The hospital administrative office used the feedback from the surveys to re-organize the administrative work. It provided confirmation that satisfaction surveys improve the medical service and development of big hospitals.[7]
All the survey results were discussed in hospital administrative office meetings and improvement plans were proposed by every staff member. Thereafter, solutions were decided on by the administrative office. For example, the complaints from patients about their hospital bills could be solved by improving communication with patients and by encouraging patients to attend a resident hospital instead of a big hospital for their first visit (which was called “two-way referral”), because resident hospitals are cheaper. The hospital staff increased communication with patients and each treatment plan was checked by senior doctors to prevent and reduce medical disputes. Patient satisfaction increased gradually after these improvements. The distribution of awards for hard-working staff was implemented and hospital benefits were improved in order to increase the satisfaction of hospital staff.[8,9] To achieve long-term development, the hospital set up themes for targeted improvement every year: 2014 was the “Medical Professional Literacy Promotion Theme Year,” 2015 was the “Hospital Culture Promotion Theme Year,” 2016 was the “Employee Care Theme Year,” 2017 was the “Hospital Safety Theme Year,” 2018 was the “Hospital Improvement Service Theme Year,” and 2019 was the “High-quality Development Theme Year.”
As above, satisfaction surveys were used to evaluate hospital service and find inadequacies. Solutions for the inadequacies were found and hospital quality increased.
Source of Funding
This research was funded by Hospital administrative expenses.
Conflict of Interest
None declared.
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