Understanding the factors that influence patient satisfaction with ambulance services

ABSTRACT

The quality of ambulance services has an immense impact on patients’ future well-being and quality of life. Patient satisfaction is one of the key metrics for evaluating the quality of this service. Yet, the patient satisfaction measurement may be limited in its ability to accurately reflect this service quality, and even reflect factors beyond the patient experiences. We analyze 10 years of survey data to reveal a number of factors that systematically bias ambulance satisfaction ratings. Taking into account these biases provides more robust comparison of ambulance performance over time or across different jurisdictions.

KEYWORDS:

• Ambulance services
• overall satisfaction
• patient satisfaction

Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the generous assistance of the Council of Ambulance Authorities Inc. in the provision of patient satisfaction data.