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PRACTICE
MANAGEMENT
The Factors Impacting Spine Patient
Satisfaction Out of the Spine Surgeon's
Control — 5 Key Notes
By Laura Dyrda
A
study published in Spine examined the patient
characteristics that could impact satisfaction
scores at spine clinics.
e researchers examined 200 patients over a sev-
en-month period, following up within three weeks of a
new encounter with a spine provider. e researchers
found:
1. e factors associated with lower provider satisfaction,
overall visit satisfaction and perceived overall quality
of care include younger age, less formal education and
smoking.
2. e male patients were significantly less satisfied with
clinical visits when compared with female patients, ac-
cording to the report.
3. Worker's compensation patients were significantly less
satisfied with their provider and overall quality of care.
4. e factors that weren't significantly associated with
lower patient satisfaction include:
• Marital status
• Working status
• Mental health history
• Travel distance
• Pain characteristics
• Previous treatments
• Current narcotic use
5. Providers can use this information to account for
sampling bias as they're increasingly assessed for patient
satisfaction as part of quality of care.
"is information is important to providers by
helping guide individualized patient interactions while in
clinic, as well as the various agencies collection satis-
faction scores allowing them to account for potential
sampling bias," concluded the study
authors. n
