Patient and referring health care provider satisfaction with a physiotherapy spinal triage assessment service

Abstract

Purpose

To evaluate participant and referring care provider satisfaction associated with a spinal triage assessment service delivered by physiotherapists in collaboration with orthopedic surgeons.

Methods

People with low back-related complaints were recruited from those referred to a spinal triage assessment program delivered by physiotherapists. Measures of patient and provider satisfaction were completed at approximately 4 weeks after the assessment. The satisfaction surveys were analyzed quantitatively with descriptive statistics and qualitatively with an inductive thematic approach of open and axial coding.

Results

A total of 108/115 participants completed the posttest satisfaction survey. Sixty-six percent of participants were “very satisfied” with the service and 55% were “very satisfied” with the recommendations that were made. Only 18% of referring care providers completed the satisfaction survey and 90.5% of those were “very satisfied” with the recommendations. Sixty-one participants and 14 care providers provided comments which revealed a diverse range of themes which were coded into positive (ie, understanding the problem, communication, customer service, efficiency, and management direction), negative (ie, lack of detail, time to follow-up, cost) and neutral related to the triage service, and an “other” category unrelated to the service (ie, chronic symptoms, comorbidities, and limited access to health care.)

Conclusion

The quantitative results of the participant survey demonstrated very high levels of satisfaction with the service and slightly less satisfaction with the recommendations that were made. Satisfaction of referring care providers with the recommendations and report was also high, but given the low response rate, these results should be interpreted with caution. Qualitative analysis of participant and provider comments revealed a diverse range of themes. These other issues may be important contextual factors that have the potential to impact patient relevant outcomes.

Keywords:

• interprofessional practice
• quality assurance
• back pain
• orthopedics

Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to the surgeons and physiotherapists associated with the STAS for their support of this project. We are also thankful to Cindy Robb for her assistance with data entry and study administration.

Disclosure

Brenna Bath was supported by the following funders during the course of this research: Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Fellowship in Knowledge Translation, Public Health and the Agricultural Rural Ecosystem CIHR Graduate Training Program, and the Western Regional Training Centre for Health Services Research CIHR Graduate Training Program. Operational funding for this research was provided by Bourassa and Associates Rehabilitation Centre, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada.