The influence of time on changes in health status and patient satisfaction.

This article develops a framework that investigates the impact that a change in health status has on satisfaction with structure and process elements of health care delivery over time. We develop and present a structural equation model that encompasses these relationships based on a survey of 284 consumers of health care services. The results indicate that health status is directly related to satisfaction with process of care elements but not directly related to structural elements. These results contribute to the literature by examining the impact of health status on satisfaction in two distinct elements related to structure and process.