Trends in consumer goods seem to change with increasing speed. Yesterday’s percolators have been replaced by pod coffee makers. Cassette tapes are long gone, replaced first by CDs, then mp4 players, and now you just need a music app on your smart phone to listen with your noise canceling Bluetooth headset. But when it comes to consumer happiness, some things don’t change. No matter how many new products hit the market, the most important question isn’t, “Do you have the latest one?” but rather, “Are you satisfied with what you bought?”

Being pleased with your purchase isn’t something a company’s Marketing Department can control. No matter how many focus groups or interviews or opinion polls manufacturers invest in, what makes an individual happy is how that unique person experienced what he or she bought.

The companies that produce goods or services are aware of this. On a recent flight to a conference, the pilot announced that we were beginning our final descent. After instructing the flight attendants to prepare the cabin for landing, the pilot said, “We’ll soon be on the ground. We know you have a choice of airlines, and we thank our passengers for flying with us today. We hope you’ll choose us again for your future travel needs.” Two days later, I received an email from the airline with a satisfaction survey. Clearly, they want to make sure that they are meeting their passengers’ needs.

Patients rate their radiologists

A research team out of Ohio State University (Columbus OH) presented a patient satisfaction analysis at the 2024 annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (Dec. 1-5, Chicago IL). Specifically, they analyzed the factors that make patients happy with their interventional radiologists. What are the ingredients that go into patient satisfaction with the tests and treatments they receive? What are they less than pleased with?

These days, patients have many online outlets for rating their doctors. According to a Jan. 2, 2025 news story about the presentation, “With the focus on patient satisfaction increasing, more patients are using online platforms such as US News Health, Share Care, Vitals, WebMD, and Google Reviews for rating doctor experiences.” Patients can post positive and negative feedback for anyone to see.

In this case, the study focused on reviews of 300 interventional radiologists randomly chosen from the Society of Interventional Radiology’s website listing of member doctors. The researchers’ goal was to analyze patient comments to identify factors that predict high patient satisfaction. In addition to the rating itself (number of stars), comments included things like wait time, outcomes of procedures (if the patient had a procedure done), bedside manner, educating the patient, insurance accepted, etc.

The vast majority of the 300 doctors received five-star reviews (total 1,964 patient ratings) while 139 ratings were four-star or fewer. The patients were roughly divided into those who had procedures (52%) vs. those who did not (48%). Among the negative comments, 72% were from those who had procedures—negative view of outcome or inadequate explanation/education–while only 28% of the negative comments were from patients who did not have procedures. Chief among negative comments was long wait time.

On the other hand, patients tended to be pleased with positive bedside manner on the part of their doctors, and cultural sensitivity to patients’ ethnicity/background. Thus, based on this study, a recipe for high patient satisfaction should contain three key ingredients in addition to the clinical care itself: excellent communication between doctor and patient, achieving the desired outcome of treatment, and the doctor being knowledgeable of and sensitive to each patient’s background and culture.

At the Sperling Prostate Center, each patient’s health is the foremost goal, but how healthcare is delivered is the human side of medicine. We are proud of our caring, empathic team members, and we strive to practice both the science (clinical care) and art (the human touch) of medicine. Please contact us and tell us how we’re doing. We want to do our best to satisfy each patient’s needs.

NOTE: This content is solely for purposes of information and does not substitute for diagnostic or medical advice. Talk to your doctor if you are experiencing pelvic pain, or have any other health concerns or questions of a personal medical nature.