Applicazione della Customer Satisfaction in un Pronto Soccorso di un’Azienda Ospedaliera: Valutazione della qualità e strategie di miglioramento

[Autom. eng. transl.] Quality assessment is important to ensure a real and continuous improvement in Healthcare. The user and his evaluation of the service, influenced, especially in critical environments, by subjective factors and personal expectations, is a fundamental actor in this process. The study aims to measure from the user's point of view, through the application of "Customer Satisfaction" (a widely used and effective methodology for quality assessment), the services in an Emergency Room (PS) of a Umbra Hospital , so as to obtain information to evaluate the managerial decisions implemented and to correctly direct future choices. The survey was conducted between September and November 2010. For the collection of data a semi-structured, anonymous questionnaire was used, which investigated the quality perceived by the compiler (according to 4 reviews: insufficient (1), sufficient (2), good (3), excellent (4)) in three main areas: organizational, technical-professional and relational. A comparison was also made, through the Chi 2 test, with the results obtained from the administration of the same questionnaire in the same structure in 2007. In the period covered by the study there were 9870 accesses to the PS. Out of a total of 460 questionnaires administered, 216 were returned. Regarding quality perceived in 2010, we note how the judgment (Media ± SD) on questions concerning information (2.9 ± 0.8), the Reception (3.0 ± 0.8), compliance of the waiting room (2.6 ± 0.9) and respect for privacy (2.8 ± 0.8), to be considered overall good. Moreover, compared to 2007, the most significant differences concerned the quality perceived in the areas inherent to the completeness of the information received (P = 0.001) and the acceptance by the operator of the triage (P = 0.002), those which, in 2007 , showed the most critical issues. On the contrary, the other areas remained stable. The results of the survey, indicating a generally good degree of satisfaction for all the areas investigated, underline a good relational capacity of the personnel, as well as a clear improvement, compared to 2007, of the judgment regarding in particular the reception of nursing staff and the information received at triage. Considering that during the three years the nursing staff has remained the same, any improvements could be attributable to the participation of the staff in the courses on communication with users organized by the Company Management, thus encouraging the latter to continue the investment work on staff training.