The problem in identifying and quantifying patient satisfaction is that it is just not possible to do so. The concept in many of the minds only limits to the patients or subjects’ attitude or aspects of care. Both these concepts although may be helpful in creating some picture of the whole, but does not represent the whole. Attitudes and understanding of its aspects are not the best indicators for patient satisfaction. It is these misconceptions that have led to so many reports demonstrating falsely positive results in terms of patient satisfaction.
(Jenkinson, 2002) The introduction of the Picker system of questionnaire was made in response to this situation. The areas of the Picker did not ask irrelevant questions like “did you like the service? ” or “what did you think of our system? ” Rather, it asked patients questions about “information and communication, coordination of care, respect of patient preferences, family and friends’ involvement, and continuity and transition.
”(Jeckinson, 2002) Based on this survey, Jeckinson started out to study the results of patient satisfaction by asking patients to respond to questionnaires. The 40 item survey was aimed to only identify the presence or absence of a certain situations during the healthcare experience. The results obtained showed that the patients generally had positive experiences regarding their healthcare stay or visit.
The patients reported least dissatisfaction on the physical comfort level. The study was not only able to confirm the levels of satisfaction that have been stated in other studies from time to time, but was also able to show that more in-depth analysis can be obtained if patients were asked opinions and insights about the various aspects of healthcare provision, which in turn may be used in the future to help improve systems. (Jenkinson, 2002)