Better Self-report Health Status and Provider–Patient Communication in Dental Service Can Improve the Patient Experience: A Cross-year Comparison from the NHI Survey

ABSTRACT

Several factors, including healthcare outcomes and quality, influence patients’ expectations of healthcare services. Currently, as patients have more understanding about dental care services, patient satisfaction is essential for continually improving the services being provided. The purpose of this study is to analyze the multiyear annual National Health Insurance (NHI) patient experience survey in Taiwan to explore the factors associated with the satisfaction rate from 2012–2016. This study used the annual NHI survey to explore patients’ experiences of receiving medical service in dental care from 2012 to 2016. There were over 40 major items in the survey each year; however, we only selected suitable items that followed the Andersen model. We ran a logistics regression testing the relationship between the covariates and the items related to satisfaction in outcomes in different years. Patients who received health education from a provider in most time, self-reported better health status, felt that cost of care was not expensive, did not wait too long for counseling time and found it easy to make an appointment, had two to ten times greater satisfaction in outcomes compared with those who did not (OR: 1.83–10.06). Individuals working in the healthcare industry should implement communication strategies to improve patients’ experience in the care process by including easy-to-understand explanations or sharing decision-making with patients. Furthermore, in patient experience surveys in dental care, less attention should be paid to whether patients can provide meaningful quality measures and more attention to ways in which patient experiences can be improved. This can be achieved by providing easy-to-understand explanations, giving patients an opportunity to express their concerns, and by sharing decision-making with patients

Acknowledgments

This study was supported by NHI grant (2015): “The study on longitudinal monitoring system of the right to seek medical care under the National Health Insurance” rewarded by the National Health Insurance Administration. The funder had no role in study design, and analysis, or decision to publish.

Disclosure of potential conflicts of interest

The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.

Supplementary material

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Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Health Insurance Administration under Grant (MOHW104-NHI-S-114-112010).