Patient satisfaction with the prenatal care provider and the risk of cesarean delivery.

Abstract

This study was undertaken to assess the relationship between patient satisfaction with the prenatal care provider and a gravid woman's risk of cesarean delivery. Medical records of 586 consecutive deliveries in a single obstetrics department were reviewed. The delivery mode was correlated to the providers' overall patient satisfaction score as measured by an ongoing mail survey. Mann-Whitney U tests and 2-tailed t tests were used. On the basis of the prenatal provider, not the delivering physician, the cesarean section delivery rates fell into 3 groups: low rate, average rate, and high rate. There is a significant difference in both the cesarean delivery rate and the patient satisfaction survey scores between the prenatal providers in the high- and low-rate groups. Higher patient satisfaction scores is correlated with a lower cesarean delivery rate.