Patient Satisfaction with Care After Coronary Revascularization.

OBJECTIVE: Bridging the Divides (Bridges), a Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services-funded program, developed a post-hospitalization care management infrastructure integrating information technology-enabled informatics with patient care for ischemic heart disease patients. The objective of this study was to assess patient satisfaction with the Bridges program and determine the patient characteristics associated with higher satisfaction. METHODS: All adult English-speaking patients who underwent a percutaneous coronary intervention, coronary artery bypass grafting, or catheterization plus acute myocardial infarction and agreed to participate in the Bridges program were eligible. A survey instrument was administered to address patient satisfaction of care received, aspects of care that patients appreciated, and challenges faced. Descriptive statistics were calculated, and primary analyses included comparisons of overall patient satisfaction after discharge between procedure type, and according to age, sex, race, Elixhauser comorbidity count, and length of stay. RESULTS: Four hundred and sixty-seven (46%) had complete or partial response rates. There was a statistically significant difference in the overall satisfaction among patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention, coronary artery bypass grafting, or catheterization plus acute myocardial infarction (p = 0.023). There were significant procedure by sex (p = 0.052) and procedure by age (p = 0.039) interactions. There were no statistically significant differences in overall satisfaction according to age, sex, race, comorbidity count, or length of stay. CONCLUSIONS: This study identified several important components related to patient satisfaction for patients with ischemic heart disease. Results found that patients who underwent coronary artery bypass grafting were reportedly "very satisfied" when compared with patients who underwent percutaneous coronary intervention and catheterization plus acute myocardial infarction, as well as significant age and sex interactions between procedures.

Gaps in knowledge: tracking and explaining gender differences in health information seeking.

Self-directed health information seeking has become increasingly common in recent years, yet there is a substantial body of evidence suggesting that females are more likely to engage in information seeking than males. Previous research has largely ignored the significance of this difference as both an empirical and a theoretical finding. The current study has two goals, seeking to track this sex gap over time and to test explanations for its existence. The three explanations tested are based in past findings of gendered division of childcare labor, gendered reactivity to illness, and gendered perceived risk of illness. These were tested using multiple dependent variables from both repeated cross sectional data and 2012 data from the Health Information Trends Survey (HINTS). Results show that females are significantly more likely to look for cancer information, information in general, and information over the Internet over time than males, though the gap may be closing in the case of cancer information. The three explanations also received little clear support though perceived risk of getting cancer acted as a mediator through which men may be less likely to look for cancer information. Based on this analysis it is clear that a sex gap in information seeking is present and theories of masculinity and health may hold promise in some contexts but additional explanations are needed.