Patient satisfaction is associated with improved health outcomes, yet using surveys to collate information on satisfaction is limited by the types of questions asked. Satisfaction remains a broad concept but asking respondents more open questions allows service users to define satisfaction from their perspective. There is limited research on the satisfaction of people with aphasia, despite this being recommended as an essential outcome that should be measured in aphasia research. The authors of this study flag their concerns given the close ties between satisfaction and Medicare reimbursement to healthcare organisations in the US. They describe a study where they have investigated the satisfaction of people with aphasia receiving interventions via telehealth. Seventeen participants, recruited from local inpatient and outpatient clinics, received a minimum of 12 aphasia therapy sessions, via a video conferencing platform called Webex. Satisfaction was measured using both a client satisfaction questionnaire, and a semi-structured interview. Interview data was transcribed verbatim and analysed using a data mining technique. Results demonstrated respondents used positive sentiment words (helped, likes, effective) and negative sentiment words (slowly, sceptical, limited), with the former being used more frequently than the latter. Respondents used terms like ‘effective’ to describe telepractice itself and ‘helpful’ to describe the therapist. Given the limited verbal output of people with aphasia, this novel method demonstrates an alternative method of analysing data. This method is not without limitations and can be criticised for lacking depth. Yet, it nevertheless provides a perspective on satisfaction often difficult to collate from people with limited language and communication.
Can we get some satisfaction (in aphasia therapy)?
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