Determinants of overall satisfaction with public clinics in rural China: interpersonal care quality and treatment outcome

The primary health care quality factors determining patient satisfaction will shape patient-centered health reform in China. While rural public clinics performed better than hospitals and private clinics in terms of patient perceived quality of primary care in China, there is little information about which quality care aspects drove patients’ satisfaction. Using a World Health Organization database on 1014 rural public clinic users from eight provinces in China, our multiple linear regression model estimated the association between patient perceived quality aspects, one treatment outcome, and overall primary health care satisfaction. Our results show that treatment outcome was the strongest predictor of overall satisfaction (β = 0.338 (95% CI: 0.284 to 0.392); p < 0.001), followed by two interpersonal care quality aspects, Dignity (being treated respectfully) (β = 0.219 (95% CI: 0.117 to 0.320); p < 0.001) and Communication (clear explanation by the physician) (β = 0.103 (95% CI: 0.003 to 0.203); p = 0.043). Prompt attention (waiting time before seeing the doctor) and Confidentiality (talking privately to the provider) were not correlated with overall satisfaction. The treatment outcome focus, and weak interpersonal primary care aspects, in overall patient satisfaction, pose barriers towards a patient-centered transformation of China’s primary care rural clinics, but support the focus of improving the clinical competency of rural primary care workers