Patient Satisfaction with Management of Back Pain Main

• Published in: Physiotherapy 2001, Vol.87 (1), p.4-20
• Main Author: May, Stephen J
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Back pain; patient satisfaction; physiotherapy; qualitative study
• ISSN: 0031-9406; 1873-1465
• DOI: 10.1016/S0031-9406(05)61186-8

This paper introduces readers to certain aspects of satisfaction. It reviews the reasons why patient satisfaction is important as an outcome, even though there is continuing debate about what exactly satisfaction represents. The best way to obtain information on what patients consider important is through the use of qualitative study designs. Previous research has found that significant dimensions of satisfaction relate to outcome, organisational issues, and interaction with health professionals. The key dimensions specific to back pain patients relate to information provision, empathy, and promoting self-care. To describe the aspects of physiotherapy care which back pain patients consider important. Qualitative study, using semi-structured interviews. All interviews were transcribed and analysed using framework analysis to generate the key themes. One community and one district general hospital in one town. One hundred and twenty-six patients who had had back pain and received physiotherapy for it during the previous year were invited to participate. Thirty-four interviews were conducted, mostly with patients with long histories of back pain. Patients were critical about the absence of certain characteristics of care, but equally were positive if these characteristics were present in an episode of physiotherapy. In this way the key dimensions were constructed. These related to the personal and professional manner of therapists, their role in providing information on different matters, making the treatment a consultative process, various aspects of the structure of provision, and the outcomes that ensue. Patients' needs relate not simply to the outcome of care, but also to the quality of the process of care. These needs are individualised, and in part reflect their history of back pain. Therapists ought to respond to these requirements, and have a key role in providing patients with appropriate information.