Patient satisfaction in military medicine: Model refinement and assessment of continuity of care effects

The Military Health System (MHS) identified patient-centered care and satisfied beneficiaries as main objectives in their 2006 Strategic Plan. The objective of this study was to expand upon the previous MHS model to determine predictors of patient satisfaction behaviors based upon associated attitudes and beliefs in addition to determining the predictive qualities presented by continuity of care. A sample of 90,318 patient responses from 2002 to 2004 was drawn from the Customer Satisfaction Survey database. Hierarchical Multiple linear regression analyses were conducted to assess the uniquely predictive effects of the independent variables on the outcome variable. Results indicated the constructs from previous studies of satisfaction within the MHS using an attitude model were consistent when tested in a behavioral model. Hypothesis tests also indicated continuity of care demonstrated uniquely predictive qualities suggesting inclusion in the model. The final satisfaction with visit model yielded F-(29,F-90,F-288) = 7062.37, p < 0.01 with R-2 = 0.694.