A Unique Mathematical Framework for Optimizing Patient Satisfaction in Emergency Departments

Abstract

In healthcare systems, emergency departments (EDs) are the most vital elements, in that they provide critical and immediate healthcare services to the patients 24 hours a day. Patient satisfaction is a crucial concept and a practical tool for evaluating the performance of the EDs. This study presents a unique framework for the performance optimization of an emergency department in a big general hospital in Iran based on the standard patient satisfaction indicators. Standard questionnaire is designed and used in a large and busy emergency department. The reliability and validity of the questionnaires are obtained by Cronbach's alpha and parametric and non-parametric analysis of variance (ANOVA), respectively. Afterwards, the most efficient data envelopment analysis (DEA) model is selected and employed to assess the performance of the emergency department based on the selected indicators. Results show that certain indicators such as quality of equipment, performance of physicians and treatment time have the greatest impact (weight) on overall patient satisfaction. The framework of this study is a practical approach for all types of emergency departments in the process of the improvement and optimization of patient satisfaction.