UNF Brooks College of Health teams up with Brooks Rehabilitation on patient satisfaction study
The University of North Florida Brooks College of Health partnered with Brooks Rehabilitation Hospital to conduct a retrospective longitudinal study on patient satisfaction at the Brooks inpatient rehab facilities. The paper, titled “What Determinants Affect Inpatient Satisfaction in a Post-Acute Care Rehabilitation Hospital?” was recently published in the Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. This research was supported by the UNF Brooks Professorship Grant.
The study was a collaborative effort between UNF Department of Health Administration faculty, Sinyoung Park, PhD, and Jasper Xu, PhD, and Brooks Rehabilitation researchers Raine Osborne, PT, DPT, EdD, former Director of Brooks Research, and Mindi R. Manes, PhD, Manager of Health & Business Analytics.
The goal of the study was to examine how specific hospital service factors such as personal issues (i.e., patients’ opinions on staff promptness and sensitivity, pain management, explanation upon arrival regarding hospital stay procedures, degree of safety and security, etc.), hospital food, patient care and hospital discharge influence patient satisfaction scores.
A total of 4,785 patients participated in the inpatient rehabilitation survey with the main outcome measures being final patient satisfaction scores, overall rating of care during their stay, and willingness to recommend the hospital to others.
Results showed that the personal issues domain, which focuses on needs and concerns specific to the patient, was the most important factor in determining overall patient satisfaction, followed by patient care, hospital discharge planning and food services. Within the personal issues domain score, staff promptness and explanation upon arrival were identified as the areas that would result in the greatest positive impact.
“Projects like this are exciting for our organization because they provide important data that helps us continuously improve the care we are able to provide to our patients,” said Victor DeRienzo, Chief Operating Officer for the Brooks Aging Services and Outpatient divisions.
The study revealed major determinants of positive patient experience in the inpatient setting and provided actionable data that will guide improvements and increase patient satisfaction scores and quality of care in the future.
“I am particularly excited about the success of this project as it has helped develop a strong collaborative research relationship between the UNF Department of Health Administration and Brooks’ Center for Data Solutions,” said Dr. Osborne. “I believe this relationship opens the door for many future efforts in the area of rehabilitation-focused health services research for the Brooks System of Care.
Read the full paper in the “Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation.”