"We'll get to you when we get to you": Exploring potential contributions of health care staff behaviors to patient perceptions of discrimination and satisfaction

G.S. Tajeu, A.L. Cherrington, L. Andreae, C. Prince, C.L. Holt and J.H. Halanych

American Journal of Public Health, 2015, vol. 105, issue 10, 2076-2082

Abstract: Objectives. We qualitatively assessed patients' perceptions of discrimination and patient satisfaction in the health care setting specific to interactions with nonphysician health care staff. Methods. We conducted 12 focus-group interviews with African American and European American participants, stratified by race and gender, from June to November 2008. We used a topic guide to facilitate discussion and identify factors contributing to perceived discrimination and analyzed transcripts for relevant themes using a codebook. Results. We enrolled 92 participants: 55 African Americans and 37 European Americans, all of whom reported perceived discrimination and lower patient satisfaction as a result of interactions with nonphysician health care staff. Perceived discrimination was associated with 2 main characteristics: insurance or socioeconomic status and race. Both verbal and nonverbal communication style on the part of nonphysician health care staff were related to individuals' perceptions of how they were treated. Conclusions. The behaviors of nonphysician health care staff in the clinical setting can potentially contribute to patients' perceptions of discrimination and lowered patient satisfaction. Future interventions to reduce health care discrimination should include a focus on staff cultural competence and customer service skills.

Keywords: African American; Caucasian; female; human; human relation; information processing; male; middle aged; paramedical personnel; patient satisfaction; prejudice; psychology; statistics and numerical data; United States, African Americans; Alabama; Allied Health Personnel; European Continental Ancestry Group; Female; Focus Groups; Humans; Male; Middle Aged; Patient Satisfaction; Prejudice; Professional-Patient Relations (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.2105/AJPH.2015.302721

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:aph:ajpbhl:10.2105/ajph.2015.302721_4

DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2015.302721

Access Statistics for this article

American Journal of Public Health is currently edited by Alfredo Morabia

More articles in American Journal of Public Health from American Public Health Association
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Christopher F Baum ().