They write: In the ambulatory plastic surgery environment, patients are more satisfied if they feel that their doctor is providing them with compassionate and coordinated care. All plastic surgery subspecialties need to do more research to incorporate satisfaction results as part of their clinical studies. This systematic review will examine the state of research on patient satisfaction in the field of plastic surgery. This pattern coincided with previous studies on plastic surgery and other medical specialties, which show that the perception of quality and time spent with the doctor or other healthcare provider have a significant impact on patient satisfaction scores. The American Society of Plastic Surgeons is the world's largest organization of board-certified plastic surgeons.
Articles related to procedures that are not considered to be of a plastic, reconstructive or aesthetic nature were excluded. Unlike the use of traditional outcome measures, such as mortality and morbidity, plastic surgery is a quality-of-life specialty in which patient satisfaction may be the most important outcome indicator in determining whether the patient will return for additional reconstructive or aesthetic procedures. While plastic surgery can be a transformative experience for many, it's critical to understand that certain procedures may have lower satisfaction rates than others. Founded in 1931, the society represents doctors certified by the American Board of Plastic Surgery or the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada.
In today's era of quality assurance and continuous improvement, Plastic Surgery can demonstrate the value of its services by developing better scientific metrics to evaluate patients' perceptions of surgical procedures and their experiences in relation to this specialty. The official journal of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery provides subscribers with up-to-date reports on the latest techniques and monitoring of all areas of plastic and reconstructive surgery, including breast reconstruction, experimental studies, maxillofacial reconstruction, hand microsurgery and microsurgery, burn repair and cosmetic surgery, as well as news on medical-legal issues. The study included responses from nearly 37,000 patients, including more than 400 from the authors' plastic surgery department. The researchers analyzed the responses to a patient satisfaction questionnaire distributed to the patients of nearly 700 plastic surgeons across the country.
A large proportion of satisfaction studies (58%) focused on breast surgery, while satisfaction outcomes have received less attention in other subspecialties of plastic surgery.
