Patient Satisfaction in Obstetrics and Gynecology: Individualized Patient-centered Communication

Background Patient satisfaction is becoming an increasingly prevalent topic in medicine, but little is known about patient satisfaction in women's health and other specialties. We review current methods of improving patient satisfaction in the field of obstetrics and gynecology with the intent to increase patient satisfaction even further by enhancing and combining previously used strategies. Methods A search from inception to June 2010 for electronic literature was performed using Medline. The search strategy used the medical subject heading terms “patient satisfaction”, “obstetrics”, “gynecology”, “patient-centered communication”, “communication training”, and “malpractice”. The company websites for Press Ganey Associates, Inc and Integrated Health Associates' were also reviewed. Studies in both general medicine and the field of obstetrics and gynecology were reviewed to emphasize disparities between patients' satisfaction in diverse medical specialties. Results Studies indicating the importance of patient satisfaction, the factors contributing to patient satisfaction, and an evaluation of current, evidence-based methods of increasing patient satisfaction were reviewed. The studies included suggest that current methods of assessing/improving patient satisfaction are effective, but may not be the most productive. Conclusions We expect that the combination of previously successful methods of improving patient satisfaction to allow physicians to employ individualized patient-centered communication may improve patient satisfaction even further. Studying the use of our proposed enhancements in physician-patient communication may be worthwhile tools to increase patient satisfaction and optimize the quality of women's healthcare.