Background According to the Beryl Institute's, patient experience (PX) is “the sum of all interactions, shaped by an organization's culture, that influence patient perceptions, across the continuum of care”; nowadays patient satisfaction is considered as one of the quality for performance in health systems (1). In order to provide a multidisciplinary quality care to patients with RA in centers of excellence (CoEs) under the coordination of a rheumatologist, provide comprehensive management of patients with this pathology, ensuring approachability to medical appointments and treatment, in order to get better clinical outcomes and improve patient safety and satisfaction of the health services provided.

Objectives To measure levels of satisfaction of RA patients treated at a specialized center and to evaluate patient service.

Methods In a RA specialized center during a 24 month period we performed a satisfaction survey in order to evaluate the health services provided. We evaluated the timing on attention, appointment assignment, information provided, the treatment received by the healthcare team, facilities among others. Patients evaluated the services provided in a scale from 1 to 4, were 1 was very bad, 2 regular, 3 good and 4 excellent. Descriptive epidemiology was performed for each variable presented.

Results We collected 1125 surveys during 2015 and 2016, 45% considered to have a timely care, the mean of waiting time for an appointment was 9 min ± 8; regarding the appointment assignment 96% of the patients evaluated it as good or excellent (mean 3.5±0.7), 80% considered that the information provided was clear and useful, 90% reported to receive a kind and friendly treatment and to considered the facilities as good or excellent. When we evaluated the satisfaction regarding the health care team 50% of patients evaluated the rheumatologist, nurse, nutritionist, physical therapist, psychologist and physiatrist as good and 40% as excellent.

Conclusions Although we found that our patients are highly satisfied, there is a large opportunity to improve our services. Also, this evidence can support further research projects in order to increase the patient's satisfaction.

References

1. Th VP. Creating the ideal patient experience. Journal of medicine and life. 2016;9(4):380–385.

References

Disclosure of Interest None declared