How do Patient-Provider Relationships Affect Patient Satisfaction?

This article reviews studies on patient satisfaction within the U.S. healthcare system to investigate how physicians’ behavior influences patients’ reported quality of care. Medical negligence, neglect, and cognitive biases are identified from the reviewed literature as physician behaviors that affect the patient-provider relationship and patient satisfaction. Emphasizing patient satisfaction and involvement in their care as important considerations when evaluating patient-provider relationships, Lightspeed underscores how the complex dynamic between patient and provider–including physicians’ reported feeling of inadequate interpersonal skills and patients’ sensitivity to dismissive communication–contributes to reduced satisfaction rates. Lightspeed argues that increasing physician awareness of these factors that influence patient satisfaction, particularly awareness of cognitive bias and neglect, will improve patients’ reported quality of care. There is a need for future research to study patient-provider communication to inform interventions targeting improving physicians’ interactions with patients and increasing patient satisfaction.