Journal of Clinical and Experimental Ophthalmology
Open Access

Abstract

Perspectives of Ophthalmologists on Managing Patient Expectations and Improving Patient Satisfaction

Ronen Rozenblum, Jacques Donzé, Ehud I Assia, Constance RC Morrison, David W Bates and Irina S Barequet

Purpose: To achieve a high level of patient satisfaction, physicians need to identify and address patients' expectations. However, ophthalmologists' attitudes and behavior with respect to patient expectations and satisfaction are not well understood. Therefore, we undertook a study to examine ophthalmologists' attitudes, performance and major determinants of their behavior with respect to managing patient expectations in different settings: public hospitals and private clinics.

Methods: The authors refined a previously validated questionnaire to assess ophthalmologists' attitudes and performance with respect to patient expectations and patient satisfaction in public hospitals and private clinics. The authors surveyed ophthalmologists at the Annual Conference of Ocular Microsurgery in Israel.

Results: Overall, 164 ophthalmologists completed the survey (65.6% response rate), of which 24 (14.6%) were residents and 140 (85.4%) were attendings. Although all the ophthalmologists working at public hospitals believed that it is important to be attentive to patient expectations, only 41.2% reported that they sometimes or always inquire about their patients’ expectations; only 2% always asked patients about their expectations. Residents at public hospitals were more likely to ask than attendings (95.8% vs. 29.0%, p<0.001). Conversely, 98.3% of ophthalmologists working in private clinics reported asking about patient expectations. Overall, 83% of ophthalmologists reported low to moderate awareness of patient expectations and 90% believed they had inadequate training to address patient expectations.

Conclusion: Although addressing patient expectations is perceived as an important part of patient-centered care, most ophthalmologists fail to routinely ask about patient expectations and, consequently, may not respond adequately. These results identify a “blind spot” in ophthalmologists’ approach in attempting to address patient expectations and improve patient satisfaction. Our findings emphasize the gaps in ophthalmologists' performance regarding patient expectations in public hospitals as compared to private clinics, suggesting a need for public hospital management to take an active role in increasing ophthalmologists' awareness and performance towards addressing patient expectations.