A qualitative analysis of women's satisfaction with primary care from a panel of focus groups in the National Centers of Excellence in Women's Health

Health issues unique to women and differences in healthcare experiences hav e recently gained attention as health plans and systems seek to extend and improve health promotion and disease prevention in the population. Successf ul efforts focused on enhancing quality of care will require information fr om the patient's perspective on how to improve such services to best suppor t women's attempts to lead healthy and productive lives. The National Cente rs of Excellence in Women's Health program (CoE), sponsored by the Office o n Women's Health within the Department of Health and Human Services, is bas ed on an integrated model uniting research, training, healthcare, and commu nity education and outreach. To examine women's concept and definitions of healthcare quality, 18 focus groups comprising 137 women were conducted nat ionwide on experiences and attributes of healthcare that women value in pri mary care. Following the focus groups, a woman-focused healthcare satisfact ion instrument was developed for the purpose of assessing and improving hea lthcare delivery. We describe the qualitative results of the focus group st udy.