Evaluations of care by ambulatory surgery patients.

As medical care increasingly moves from inpatient to outpatient delivery settings, attention must be paid to patient assessments of the care received in these ambulatory medical centers. This study of patients in ambulatory surgery centers (N = 275) across the United States reports on the ratings given to the varied attributes of the ambulatory surgery experience. The respondents (N = 36,078) gave highest ratings to those items which evaluated the nurses and physicians and lower marks to items related to registration and access. The article concludes with an illustration of a quadrant analysis technique that managers can use to identify the specific care issues that should be addressed to increase positive word-of-mouth referrals.