Determinants of patients' experiences and satisfaction with fertility care

Objective: To assess determinants of patients' experiences and satisfaction with fertility care.

Design: Cross-sectional questionnaire study.

Setting: Sixteen fertility clinics in The Netherlands.

Patient(s): A total of 1,499 infertile women in The Netherlands who visited a participating clinic in April-June 2005 for diagnostics or treatment.

Main outcome measures: Patients experiences and satisfaction with several aspects of fertility care, and the patient and clinic characteristics that are determinants of those two concepts.

Result(s): In general, patients' satisfaction with care was high (94%). Waiting times, information provision and emotional support were experienced the least positive aspects of care. Determinants of all care aspects were found to be significant at four different domains: three at patient level, i.e., demographic characteristics, type of received treatment and both general and mental health status, and one at clinic level, i.e., organization of care.

Conclusion(s): This study provides an increased understanding of the determinants of patients' experiences and satisfaction with fertility care. This enables professionals to tailor their care to specific subgroups of patients and adjust their organization of fertility care where needed. Moreover, the study underlines the need to investigate whether case-mix correction is necessary whenever interpreting patient-surveys on care experiences, because both the patient's and the clinic's characteristics can influence the way that health care delivery is experienced. Demographic background of this regional patient sample was rather homogeneous, which should be taken into account when interpreting results.