BACKGROUND: Patient satisfaction surveys are increasingly used to measure consulting quality and outcome, but little is known of how good doctors are at judging their patients' satisfaction with their consultations. OBJECTIVES: To determine if patient satisfaction and enablement following a consultation are correlated with both inexperienced and experienced doctors' predictions of patient satisfaction and doctors' own satisfaction with the consultation. DESIGN: Cross-sectional questionnaire-based observational study. SETTING: Scottish general practices. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Using a post-consultation questionnaire we compared doctors' estimates of patient satisfaction with the consultation; doctors' own satisfaction with the consultation; scores on the Patient Enablement Instrument (PEI) and the Consultation Satisfaction Questionnaire (CSQ). RESULTS: Twenty-nine doctors and 1848 patients took part. Each doctor recorded an average of 63.7 (SD: 32.1) consultations. Patient measures of satisfaction and enablement were only weakly correlated with doctor predictions of patient satisfaction (rs=0.07 for PEI and 0.13 for CSQ; both P<0.01) or doctor satisfaction (rs=0.10 for PEI and 0.12 for CSQ; both P<0.01) with the consultation. They were, however, moderately well correlated (rs=0.50 P<0.01) with one another. CONCLUSION: Doctors are poor at predicting patient satisfaction in the consultation. Further research is required to determine the reasons for this.
BACKGROUND:Patient satisfaction surveys are increasingly used to measure consulting quality and outcome, but little is known of how good doctors are at judging their patients' satisfaction with their consultations. OBJECTIVES: To determine if patient satisfaction and enablement following a consultation are correlated with both inexperienced and experienced doctors' predictions of patient satisfaction and doctors' own satisfaction with the consultation. DESIGN: Cross-sectional questionnaire-based observational study. SETTING: Scottish general practices. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Using a post-consultation questionnaire we compared doctors' estimates of patient satisfaction with the consultation; doctors' own satisfaction with the consultation; scores on the Patient Enablement Instrument (PEI) and the Consultation Satisfaction Questionnaire (CSQ). RESULTS: Twenty-nine doctors and 1848 patients took part. Each doctor recorded an average of 63.7 (SD: 32.1) consultations. Patient measures of satisfaction and enablement were only weakly correlated with doctor predictions of patient satisfaction (rs=0.07 for PEI and 0.13 for CSQ; both P<0.01) or doctor satisfaction (rs=0.10 for PEI and 0.12 for CSQ; both P<0.01) with the consultation. They were, however, moderately well correlated (rs=0.50 P<0.01) with one another. CONCLUSION: Doctors are poor at predicting patient satisfaction in the consultation. Further research is required to determine the reasons for this.