This Article  • Full text  • PDF  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Citation map  • Citing articles on HighWire  • Citing articles on ISI (10)  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Related letter  • Related article  • Similar articles in JAMA  Topic Collections  • Quality of Care, Other  • Alert me on articles by topic

A Verdict on Contemporary Medical Care?

Leon Eisenberg, MD

JAMA. 2001;285:2639-2641.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

In the Clinical Crossroads in this issue of THE JOURNAL, the discussant Dr Jennifer Daley¹ rates the care the patient received as "good technical outcome, poor service experience."

No one will quarrel with the accuracy of the judgment rendered, but what a sad commentary—and understatement—about what happened to the patient. Most physicians and patients, and undoubtedly Ms G herself, would prefer that result to a rating of "good service experience, poor technical outcome" after such surgery, an outcome that was commonly the case with knee surgery 20 years ago, before orthopedic methods improved so remarkably.² Being able to take a 3-week hiking trip after knee surgery is a tribute to modern orthopedics no less than to the skill of her surgeon.

But must there be an inverse relationship between technical outcome and service experience? Clearly not. Yet public dissatisfaction with care received has been increasing in recent . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Author Affiliation: Department of Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Mass.

RELATED LETTER

A Patient Dissatisfied With Her Care
Lyn S. Aye, Kenneth Drasner, Robert Morell, Julie Prielipp, Thomas R. Hill, Neil Swissman, Thom A. Mayer, Robert J. Cates, Stephen Jackson, Jennifer Daley, and Leon Eisenberg
JAMA. 2001;286(11):1311-1315.
EXTRACT | FULL TEXT  

RELATED ARTICLE

A 58-Year-Old Woman Dissatisfied With Her Care
Jennifer Daley
JAMA. 2001;285(20):2629-2635.
EXTRACT | FULL TEXT  

THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES

Patients' Perceptions of Quality of Care for Colorectal Cancer by Race, Ethnicity, and Language
Ayanian et al.
JCO 2005;23:6576-6586.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

The Surgeon's Art
Crombie
Arch Surg 2002;137:390-396.
FULL TEXT  

A 58-Year-Old Woman Dissatisfied With Her Care, 2 Years Later
Audet and Hartman
JAMA 2002;287:1577-1577.
FULL TEXT  

A Patient Dissatisfied With Her Care
Aye et al.
JAMA 2001;286:1311-1315.
FULL TEXT