Many studies in acute medicine have failed to identify a relationship between patient satisfaction and health care quality.
In the United States, hospitals whose surgery patients reported being highly satisfied also performed higher quality surgical procedures.
[15] The Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems or CAHPS survey is an ongoing research project to guide the development of consumer surveys being used assess the quality of care provided by health plans, physician groups, and clinicians.
[16] A concern about asking patients about the quality of their care is that patients tend to be more satisfied by attractive healthcare than by effective healthcare, and satisfaction reports may not give good information about the ability of a hospital, doctor, or treatment to improve their health.
reduced complaint behavior about their primary care physician, and lower likelihood of terminating a relationship [citation needed] Among healthcare consumers—i.e., patients—satisfaction is best understood as a multi-attribute model with different aspects of care determining overall satisfaction.