Patient satisfaction with ambulatory care in Germany: effects of patient- and medical practice-related factors.

OBJECTIVE: The study aimed to illustrate the effect of the patients' sex, age, self-rated health and medical practice specialization on patient satisfaction. DESIGN: Secondary analysis of patient survey data using multilevel analysis (generalized linear mixed model, medical practice as random effect) using a sequential modelling strategy. We examined the effects of the patients' sex, age, self-rated health and medical practice specialization on four patient satisfaction dimensions: medical practice organization, information, interaction, professional competence. SETTING: The study was performed in 92 German medical practices providing ambulatory care in general medicine, internal medicine or gynaecology. PARTICIPANTS: In total, 9888 adult patients participated in a patient survey using the validated 'questionnaire on satisfaction with ambulatory care-quality from the patient perspective [ZAP]'. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S): We calculated four models for each satisfaction dimension, revealing regression coefficients with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for all independent variables, and using Wald Chi-Square statistic for each modelling step (model validity) and LR-Tests to compare the models of each step with the previous model. RESULTS: The patients' sex and age had a weak effect (maximum regression coefficient 1.09, CI 0.39; 1.80), and the patients' self-rated health had the strongest positive effect (maximum regression coefficient 7.66, CI 6.69; 8.63) on satisfaction ratings. The effect of medical practice specialization was heterogeneous. CONCLUSIONS: All factors studied, specifically the patients' self-rated health, affected patient satisfaction. Adjustment should always be considered because it improves the comparability of patient satisfaction in medical practices with atypically varying patient populations and increases the acceptance of comparisons.