[Patient satisfaction when seen in the Emergency room of San Juan de Dios del Aljarafe Hospital (Spain)].

Objectives: To find out the level of satisfaction of patients seen in the Emergency room of the of San Juan de Dios Hospital, Aljarafe; to identify the determining factors and to define the areas that need improvement and reinforcement in order to improve the quality of care.

Material And Methods: A telephone survey was carried out between July and September, 2008, containing 44 questions, 2 with a closed response, 3 with yes/no answers and the remaining questions scored based on a Likert type scale of 1 (most negative answer) to 5 (most positive answer). Observations were also recorded.

Results: Overall satisfaction was 84.7%: 82% would recommend this Emergency room, and 59.6% considered it better than others. The aspects to be emphasised are: respect (97.6%), cleanliness (97.1%) and intimacy (94.6%). Following these were: the doctor's disposition to listen (93.1%); the preparation of the professionals (from 92.3% for the administration professionals to 88.6% for auxiliary nurses); kindness (from 91.8% for doctors to 89.9% for nurses); and the ease of getting orientated (90%). The information given was evaluated positively by 70.3%, and 87% acknowledged understanding this information. However, 52.4% of patients were satisfied with the information given during triage related to the stay in the emergency room, and, 22.3% as regards the probable waiting period. The satisfaction with the waiting between triage and first medical consultation was higher in the one-two-triage patients and was lower in the four-triage ones; in the waiting between first medical consultation and the discharge, the one-triage patients were more satisfied than the rest. Nevertheless, there were no statistically significant differences with satisfaction with the waiting until the triage.

Conclusions: The percentages of satisfaction was greater than 80% in 23 of the 34 items, with certain aspects having a satisfaction rate over 90%: respect, cleanliness, the doctor's predisposition to listen, qualification and kindness of the personnel. On the contrary, others items were scored under a rate of 70%: information at triage, attention to pain, waiting periods for triage-doctor's first visit and subsequent visit for discharge, and personnel identification.