• Jin-An Huang, Chi-Shiun Lai, Wen-Chen Tsai, Rhay-Hung Weng, Wei-Hsiung Hu, and Dar-Yu Yang.
• Department of Emergency Medicine, Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan, ROC.
• J Chin Med Assoc. 2004 Aug 1; 67 (8): 403-10.

BackgroundThe present era of a competitive healthcare environment indicates that providers have been convinced that attentiveness to patient satisfaction is integral to care quality and market share. Patient satisfaction is especially critical for frequent users of the emergency department (ED). The aim of this study was to compare satisfaction of overall ED care between frequent and infrequent ED users, and to find out the factors determining satisfaction among the frequent ED users.MethodsFrequent ED users (> or = 4 visits/per year) and infrequent ED users (< 4 visits/per year) were selected randomly from patients visiting the adult ED of a public tertiary medical center from October 1, 2000 to September 30, 2001. Retrospective telephone interviews were completed for 200 frequent users and 200 infrequent users. Ordinal logistic regression analysis was performed.ResultsInfrequent ED users tended to give a higher satisfaction rating than frequent ED users to emergency care (OR = 2.14; 95% CI = 1.40-3.25). The 2 significant determinants associated with satisfaction with emergency care among frequent ED users were discharge instructions (OR = 2.78; 95% CI = 1.27-6.12) and subjective waiting time (OR = 12.6; 95% CI = 4.22-37.8).ConclusionsThe frequent ED users were unique, and their satisfaction with overall emergency care was significantly lower than that of infrequent ED users. Managing waiting time perceptions and providing discharge instructions may be an effective strategy to achieve improved patient satisfaction among frequent ED users.

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