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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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| Patient satisfaction and the elderly | | Author(s) | David J Owens, Claire Batchelor |
| Journal title | Social Science and Medicine, vol 42, no 11, 1996 |
| Pages | pp 1483-1491 |
| Keywords | District nursing ; Consumer ; Quality ; Evaluation. |
| Annotation | This study demonstrates the importance of questioning the patient's role as consumer: there are several unproven assumptions relating to patient satisfaction surveys, and patients' evaluations and beliefs are not necessarily embodied in expressions of satisfaction. The article examines such assumptions in the light of a study of older patients' experience of the District Nursing Service. It is argued that users' capacity, or willingness, to evaluate health care services cannot be taken for granted; that patients have few if any expectations on which to base an evaluation of the care they receive; that the sense of dependency they have on service providers can affect expressions of satisfaction; and that, outside the acute sector, the varied nature of the relationship between patient and service provider needs to be taken into account. The issues raised are relevant to much wider populations, and have general implications for research. It is suggested that appropriately chosen qualitative methods can provide a useful starting point in studies which aim to establish how, to what extent and whether patients evaluate health services. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-980108261 A |
| Classmark | N6: WY: 59: 4C * |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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