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Ingalill Rahm Hallberg

Ingalill Rahm Hallberg

Professor emerita

Ingalill Rahm Hallberg

Patient satisfaction after expenditure cutback and intervention to improve nursing care at a surgical clinic. At two-year follow-up.

Author

  • Barbro Ottosson
  • Ingalill Rahm Hallberg
  • Karin Axelsson
  • Lars Lovén

Summary, in English

Between 1991 and 1994 the number of beds in the surgical clinic at a central hospital in Southern Sweden was cut back by almost 50%. To develop the nursing care and to control the effects of the budgetary cuts, an intervention, including nursing care development, of an organization that would secure continuity in the nurse-patient relationship, individually planned care and quality assurance for aspects believed to be crucial to the quality of nursing care was implemented. The aim of this study was to analyse patients’ satisfaction with surgical nursing care between, under and after the last cut in expenditure and the concluded intervention. A patient satisfaction questionnaire covering such areas as: patient satisfaction with information and decisionmaking; patient satisfaction with contact and the staff-patient relationship; patient satisfaction with ward facilitles and the physical treatment or examination and patient satisfaction with various other aspects of care, was administered (1993 {pi}=131; 1994 {pi}=128). Subsample analysis showed lower scores for patient satisfaction if the respondents were women, young, or acutely ill when admitted. While surveys carried out between 1991 and 1993 showed an overall improvement in the quality of care, as measured by patient satisfaction, it remained at the same level in 1994 as in 1993, or decreased, regarding patient contacts with staff and physicians, involvement in decision-making, anxiety before examination/treatment, anxiety regarding professional secrecy, opportunity to influence the solution to their physical problems, chance to get sleep without being disturbed, physical nursing care and preparations before discharge. Thus a deterioration in quality seemed to take place in 1994 indicating that the cuts in expenditure may have been too hard and had been made at the expense of patient satisfaction.

Department/s

  • Department of Health Sciences

Publishing year

1997

Language

English

Pages

43-53

Publication/Series

International Journal for Quality in Health Care

Volume

9

Issue

1

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Oxford University Press

Topic

  • Health Care Service and Management, Health Policy and Services and Health Economy

Keywords

  • nursing care
  • questionnaire
  • surgical nursing care
  • information
  • patient participation
  • quality improvement
  • Patient satisfaction
  • nurse-patient relationship

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 1464-3677