Use of patient satisfaction data in a continuous quality improvement program for endoscopic sinus surgery

OBJECTIVE. Continuous quality improvement (CQI) is an effort by health care providers to improve the quality of service by continuously exceeding patients' expectations. Patient satisfaction is one of the measures of the quality of care. The aims of this study were to report the patients' evaluation of endoscopic sinus surgery (ESS) and to explore the feasibility in using,patient satisfaction data in the CQI program for ESS. METHODS: Eighty-three patients completed a validated patient satisfaction survey (PSS) I month after undergoing ESS. Logistic regression models were applied to determine the confounders of patient satisfaction. RESULTS: In general, 72% of patients were very satisfied with the services. Education level and milder disease correlated with higher overall satisfaction levels (P less than or equal to 0.01). Anesthesia, the addition of nasal septal surgery, intranasal packing, and postoperative sinuscopy had significant impacts on patient satisfaction (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION. ESS is a good technique to evaluate for implementing efforts in quality improvement. Confounding factors need to be adjusted before patient satisfaction data can be used in a CQI program.