Factors associated with patient evaluation of health care.

The purpose of this paper is to study the relationships among patient characteristics, characteristics of a health care encounter, and patients' evaluation of that encounter. On the basis of 1739 patient-provider encounters in eleven ambulatory care settings, three relatively independent correlates of patient satisfaction were found: age; community satisfaction; and the nature and degree of continuity of care which characterized the visit. Patients' sex, marital status, religion, and the number and kind of services provided were not related to the evaluations patients made. Greatest differences in patient satisfaction were from setting to setting, and these differences probably can be attributed to the types of patients which they recruit or service (i.e., age, level of community satisfaction) and setting policy and procedures regarding continuity of care.