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BACKGROUND
For our networking class, we are required to review a database with information from DoD health care consumer satisfaction surveys and formulate a research question.
I decided to look at patient satisfaction for care received at Obstetrical (OB) clinics and compare it between the services. A new policy allows pregnant military beneficiaries to choose between receiving their care at a military treatment facility or a civilian hospital. In order to be competitive, the services must ensure they are responsive to consumers. Patient satisfaction results are a good indicator.
DoD health care should also identify which military service is providing the best OB medical care and service in the eyes of the patient. The other services should then examine the practices of that service and implement them at their own facilities when possible.
RESEARCH QUESTION
My research question is which of the three military services has the highest patient satisfaction (question 5) for OB care?
PROCESS
My first step was to go into the database in SPSS and select the survey data pertaining to visits to Obstetric Clinics.
I wanted to get a quick view of the overall satisfaction of the patients concerning their Obstetric care. I was curious to get an idea of how many of our patients were unhappy and were more likely to select civilian care. I looked at their reponses to the survey question how satisfied are you with medical care recieved at the clinic? (question 5)
BIG PICTURE
Looking at this pie chart, I would assume we are doing a pretty good job in the DoD because about 3/4 are completely or very satisifed. I would be concerned about the 1/4 who are somewhat satisfied or have some level of disatisfaction. These are the people who would be most likely to transfer to civilian OB care.
My next step was to look at the descriptives for my statistics.
Descriptives
HOW SATISFIED W MEDICAL CARE RECEIVED AT CLINIC
|
|
N |
Mean |
Std. Deviation |
Std. Error |
95% Confidence Interval for Mean |
|
Minimum |
Maximum |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Lower Bound |
Upper Bound |
|
|
|
A |
184 |
5.79 |
1.388 |
.102 |
5.59 |
5.99 |
1 |
7 |
|
N |
429 |
5.94 |
1.277 |
.062 |
5.82 |
6.06 |
1 |
7 |
|
Total |
613 |
5.89 |
1.312 |
.053 |
5.79 |
6.00 |
1 |
7 |
When I first looked at the descriptives, I panicked thinking I had done something wrong since the Air Force was not included in the results. Then I realized these surveys were distributed in Region 11 and the only Air Force facility is Fairchild which does not offer Obstetrical Medical Care.
The sample size is sufficient. Navy had more respondents than Army which can be related back to the fact that there are two Navy facilities that offer OB care and only one Army facility. The standard deviation for the Army is wider than the Navy.
The next step was to run a ANOVA and Crosstab.
ANOVA
HOW SATISFIED W MEDICAL CARE RECEIVED AT CLINIC
|
|
Sum of Squares |
df |
Mean Square |
F |
Sig. |
|
Between Groups |
2.950 |
1 |
2.950 |
1.715 |
.191 |
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Within Groups |
1051.158 |
611 |
1.720 |
|
|
|
Total |
1054.108 |
612 |
|
|
|
Case Processing Summary
|
|
Cases |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Valid |
|
Missing |
|
Total |
|
|
|
N |
Percent |
N |
Percent |
N |
Percent |
|
MSERVICE * HOW SATISFIED W MEDICAL CARE RECEIVED AT CLINIC |
613 |
95.6% |
28 |
4.4% |
641 |
100.0% |
MSERVICE * HOW SATISFIED W MEDICAL CARE RECEIVED AT CLINIC Crosstabulation
Count
|
|
|
HOW SATISFIED W MEDICAL CARE RECEIVED AT CLINIC |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Total |
|
|
|
CMPT DISSAT |
VERY DISSAT |
SOMEWHAT DISSAT |
NEITHER |
SOMEWHAT SATIS |
VERY SATIS |
CMPT SATIS |
|
|
MSERVICE |
A |
5 |
3 |
5 |
15 |
20 |
73 |
63 |
184 |
|
|
N |
4 |
8 |
18 |
21 |
52 |
152 |
174 |
429 |
|
Total |
|
9 |
11 |
23 |
36 |
72 |
225 |
237 |
613 |
After looking at these results, I noticed that responses were missing for a number of the cases. I should have run my data without the missing cases. The significance of .191 is greater than .05 so no significant group difference exists. Although the Navy has a higher mean than the Army, the difference isn't significant. It would not be necessary to model one services practices after another to increase patient satisfaction. Instead further studies should be done to identify other variables, characteristics of the respondents who rated the question (Q5) less than very satisfied.
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