The moderators of patient satisfaction.

The purpose of this study was to determine which Department of Defense (DOD) active duty patient sociodemographic, health status, geographic location, and utilization factors, predict overall patient satisfaction with health care in military facilities. A theoretical framework developed from patient satisfaction and social identity theories and from previous empirical findings was used to develop a model to predict patient satisfaction and delineate moderating variables. The major finding indicated in this study was the significance of patients' characteristics in moderating their satisfaction. Principal components factor analysis and hierarchical linear regression revealed that patient specific factors predicted patients' satisfaction after controlling for factors depicting patients' evaluations of health system characteristics. Patient specific factors provided added, although very minimal, explanatory value to the determination of patients' satisfaction. The study findings can aid in the development of targeted, objectively prioritized programs of improvement and marketing by ranking variables using patients' passively derived importance schema.