Satisfaction and value: a meta-analysis in the healthcare context.

Understanding healthcare performance from the patient's perspective has attracted more attention from the scholars and practitioners as consumers are becoming the driving force to the innovation of healthcare delivery in the knowledge economy (Morath 2003; Scott 2003). However, most of the studies have been constrained in the methods by which the clinical professionals assess what they perceived as the patient's value. This research attempts to examine the constructs for the conceptualization of patient value and its relationship with patient satisfaction. The results indicate that the providers' skills and knowledge and their respectful communication with the patients are the most important. These attributes followed by the providers' level of empathy and attention and the physical environment factors.