What Drives Emergency Department Patient Satisfaction? An Empirical Test using Structural Equation Modeling

Patient satisfaction determinants in emergency departments (EDs) have for decades been heavily investigated. Despite great focus, a lack of consensus about which parameters are deemed most important remains. This study proposes an integrated framework for ED patient satisfaction, testing four key hypotheses concerning effects between the latent constructs wait time, information delivery, safety, and infrastructure. The framework allow ED decision makers insight into the magnitude of the latent constructs’ importance with appertaining statistical significance based on an ample empirical sample. Such information is valuable to illuminate where to launch high impact initiatives to increase current ED patient satisfaction levels.