Patient Satisfaction in Workers' Compensation Medical Care

Lee, Hwa Pyung; Im, Hyoung June; Ju, Young Su; Kwon, Young Jun; Kang, Hee Tae; Kim, Jeong Min; Cho, Sung Sik; Lee, Tae Kyung; Yoon, Jongwan

Abstract

OBJECTIVES
To evaluate the patient satisfaction and its influencing factors after medical care for workrelated injuries.
METHODS
A self-reported questionnaire was mailed to 921 workers who had experienced workers' compensation medical care. The data from 335 respondents (response rate was 36.4%) were merged and analysed with the data from the Korea Labor Welfare Corporation (KLWC) which contain other general information of the respondents.
RESULTS
Dissatisfaction with their medical care was reported by 17.3% of the respondents. Overall patient satisfaction (OPS) was highly correlated with the medical treatment process such as hospital facility, medical therapy, surgical therapy, doctor's explanation and physical therapy. However, OPS was negatively influenced by three factors: 1) unsatisfactory hospital care during waiting period before the approval of workers' compensation, 2) forced end of the hospital care by the workers' compensation, and 3) end of the hospital care with no further improvement.
CONCLUSIONS
To improve the satisfaction of patients with work-related injuries, both the practice of medical treatment and also the administrative process of workers' compensation must be reformed. These reforms are needed to improve the quality of workers' compensation medical care and prevent abnormal illness behavior such as inappropriate treatment seeking.