The Effect of Eliciting Unexpressed Desires of Patients in Satisfaction Studies

The study was conducted to understand the expectations and to evaluate the satisfaction of Out Patients with the specific objective of determining whether administration of an expectation survey to the patients had any effect on the scores of satisfaction survey. The goal was to find if bringing out the unexpressed desires of patients was helpful in satisfaction studies. Two questionnaires, a Patient Expectation Survey and a Patient Satisfaction Survey consisting of seventeen service components/factors and one general expectations/satisfaction item were devised. The results showed that patients who were administered an expectation survey were in a better position to evaluate the services and responded to the satisfaction survey accordingly.