The Correlation of Communication Effectiveness and Patient Satisfaction

Abstract

This study assessed the correlation of 9 questions addressing communication effectiveness (the Communication Effectiveness Questionnaire [CEQ]) with other patient-reported experience measures (PREMs; satisfaction, perceived empathy) as well as patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs; pain intensity, activity tolerance) in patients with musculoskeletal illness or injury. In a cross-sectional study, 210 patients visiting an orthopedic surgeon completed the CEQ and measures of satisfaction with the visit, perceived empathy, pain intensity, and activity tolerance. We evaluated correlations between CEQ and other PREMs and CEQ and PROMs. We measured ceiling effects of the PREMs. Communication effectiveness correlated moderately with other PREMs such as satisfaction (ρ = 0.54; P < .001) and perceived empathy (ρ = 0.54; P < .001). Communication effectiveness did not correlate with PROMs: pain intensity (ρ = −0.01; P = .93) and activity tolerance (ρ = −0.05; P = .44). All of the experience measures have high ceiling effects: perceived empathy 37%, satisfaction 80%, and CEQ 46%. The observation of notable correlations of various PREMs, combined with their high ceiling effects, direct us to identify a likely common statistical construct (which we hypothesize as “relationship”) accounting for variation in PREMs, and then develop a PREM which measures that construct in a manner that results in a Gaussian distribution of scores. At least within the limitations of current experience measures, there seems to be no association between illness (PROMs) and experience (PREMs).

Odds-ratio network for postoperative factors revealing differences in the 2-year longitudinal pattern of satisfaction between women and men after total knee arthroplasty

“…As a result, heterogenous methods for measuring satisfaction are generally used 2 . Moreover, patient self-evaluation of satisfaction depends not only on the patient’s reading and understanding of the questions on satisfaction but also on the question number 20 and communication linked to examinations 21 . In addition, according to Herzberg’s motivational hygiene theory, patients are often unable to understand that satisfaction and dissatisfaction are not opposites 22 .…”

There is Little or No Association Between Independently Assessed Communication Strategies and Patient Ratings of Clinician Empathy

“…We expect that if the association between independently assessed communication strategies and patient-rated clinician empathy was strong, we would have detected this, regardless of the notable ceiling effects of the empathy scale. Development of new patient-reported experience measures with limited ceiling effects is needed to better gauge the effect of improvement interventions on patient satisfaction, ratings of empathy, and trust in the clinician [32]. Third, we did not account for clinician personal factors.…”

CORR Insights®: Which Factors Are Associated With Satisfaction With Treatment Results in Patients With Hand and Wrist Conditions? A Large Cohort Analysis

“…When I’ve studied satisfaction and experience in the past, I’ve found small correlations with symptoms of despair, health anxiety, and catastrophic thinking [2, 3, 11, 14, 18, 22, 25]. My research group found notable correlations with other measures of experience (trust, empathy, met expectations, communication effectiveness, and shared decision-making) [10, 12, 16-18, 20, 23, 24]. So notable, in fact, that I’m nearly ready to conclude, based on evidence to date, that the various measures of experience may all be measuring a single underlying construct that we currently refer to as “relationship.”…”