Abstract
➤ In addition to their wish to understand the clinical results of orthopaedic interventions, clinicians, patients, and payers are increasingly interested in patient satisfaction, both with the process of care and with outcomes.
➤ The construct of satisfaction is complex and depends on the context in which care takes place, including the nature of treatment, its setting, and most importantly the expectation of patients prior to treatment.
➤ The characteristics of scales that are effective measures of satisfaction are the same as those of all effective measurement instruments—i.e., reliability, validity, and responsiveness.
➤ Measurement of patient satisfaction may be especially important in evaluations of established procedures and processes so that the value of those procedures and processes to patients can be more completely understood.
Footnotes
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Disclosure: None of the authors received payments or services, either directly or indirectly (i.e., via his or her institution), from a third party in support of any aspect of this work. One or more of the authors, or his or her institution, has had a financial relationship, in the thirty-six months prior to submission of this work, with an entity in the biomedical arena that could be perceived to influence or have the potential to influence what is written in this work. No author has had any other relationships, or has engaged in any other activities, that could be perceived to influence or have the potential to influence what is written in this work. The completeDisclosures of Potential Conflicts of Interest submitted by authors are always provided with the online version of the article.
