Improving People’s Self-Reported Experience with the Health Services: The Role of Non-Clinical Factors

The main aim of this study was to analyse the association between non-clinical factors and the self-reported experience of people with the main health services of the Spanish public healthcare system. Specifically, we analysed whether factors such as the treatment received from health staff, the confidence transmitted to the patient by the doctor, or waiting time for a diagnostic test had an influence on people reporting a more satisfactory experience with primary, specialised, and hospital care services. We used cross-sectional microdata from the Spanish Healthcare Barometer survey of 2015 comprising a sample of 7800 individuals. We applied a probit-adapted ordinary least squares estimation, which is one of the most widely used methods in recent studies on subjective well-being. Our findings suggest that individuals’ interaction with non-clinical factors was positively correlated with the overall health services experience. Treatment received from health staff was one of the most relevant factors to ensure that individuals report a more satisfactory experience with primary care. Time devoted by physicians to each patient and waiting time for a non-emergency admission were the most correlated factors in specialised and hospital care services, respectively. This study could have implications for public policies. First, it shows policy-makers the influence of non-clinical factors when individuals rate their overall experience with the main health services in Spain. Second, it identifies the key factors where the health system could reallocate more public resources to improve people’s experience and thus the health system responsiveness.