Patient satisfaction not just based on health care experience; WHO

A survey measuring patient satisfaction in 21 European countries has investigated what determines people's satisfaction with the health care  system above and beyond their experience as patients, reports the  Bulletin of the World Health Organization.

Austria and Spain, for example, have universally-accessible,  publicly-financed health systems, characterized by hospitals with  salaried physicians, yet only 10.8% of Spaniards claimed to be very  satisfied with the health care that they receive, compared with 70.4% of  Austrians.

According to co-author Emre Ozaltin, from the Harvard School of Public  Health in the USA, a patient's actual experience (measured by health  system responsiveness), while significant, determines just 10% of their  degree of satisfaction. "Much of the variation is explained by external  factors such as patient expectations, their self-reported health status  and personality, as well as broader societal factors," he says.