Patient satisfaction with diabetes care in Romania – An importance-performance analysis

Abstract

The medical care services market is currently confronted with increasing competition in the context of the development of private medical services providers. At the same time patients tend to become much more informed of the various treatment options as a consequence of medical information now being available through a variety of sources. Furthermore, they expect time, information and answers to their questions as well as politeness, empathy and attention from their doctor which brings them very close to the traditional consumer profile. Patients satisfaction is thus increasingly regarded as an important element in healthcare systems, even more so as it is also linked to positive medical and marketing results. It is even more important in the context of chronic illnesses where disease management is extended for a long period of time and treatment success is closely connected to patient compliance. The article aims to identify those attributes medical providers for diabetes care in the ambulatory setting in Romania should focus on in order to maximize patient satisfaction. By using the importance-performance analysis, factors were distributed into four quadrants according to the perceived levels of importance attributed by the consumers and the perceived performance offered by the medical unit. Results show that medical units should maintain efforts for ensuring a high performance level for the availability of the doctors and nurses attribute, engage in more active promotion of auxiliary support services and keep up the good work done with regards to accessibility and clinic facilities. The added value of the article lies in the fact that it presents a starting point for medical units in analyzing their strengths and weaknesses for two criteria used by consumers during the buying decision-making process: the importance of the attributes under analysis and the perceived performance offered by the supplier.