HOME HEALTH-CARE ORDERS - AN ASSESSMENT OF SERVICE SATISFACTION BY INTERNISTS, SURGEONS, AND MEDICAL SUBSPECIALISTS

We conducted a pilot study to evaluate the satisfaction of general int ernists, medical subspecialists, and surgeons with the quality of home health orders generated by home health agencies, Using a mail survey, we polled 69 physician specialists at Tulane University Medical Cente r, The percentage of physicians satisfied with the appropriateness of services for the level and type of care, consistency of medication wit h that prescribed, sufficiency of data on the certification form to as sess service continuation, timeliness of orders, and overall health se rvice delivery was 94%, 92%, 69%, 52%, and 88%, respectively, Compared with medical subspecialists and surgeons, general internists were mor e likely to report that the data on the form were sufficient, Physicia ns who were satisfied with at least one of the four measures of qualit y for home health orders were more likely to be satisfied with the ove rall delivery of services by home health agencies. Our results demonst rate, for the first time, that physicians overall are satisfied with h ome healthcare orders. However, level of satisfaction with orders is r elated to the physician's specialty Areas that physicians were less sa tisfied with included timeliness of orders and sufficiency of data on the form to assess service continuation, Further studies using a large r population and more specific indicators of healthcare orders quality are recommended.