Patient satisfaction and hospital management policy.

A cross-sectional study of 119 hospitals in Japan was made to find out which factors were related to patient satisfaction. The patient's overall satisfaction was found to be a reliable and valid evaluation of hospital performance and was unrelated to patient characteristic or hospital size, ownership and location. To improve patient satisfaction, it would seem that there is need to improve not only the nursing level, but also to well inform employees, to have a clear management policy, to have a good labour-management relationship and to initiate the newly employed.