It is entirely possible to feel dissatisfied even when a medical outcome is objectively good.
A treatment may achieve its clinical goal, meet professional standards, and improve health — yet still feel disappointing to a patient. This commonly occurs when recovery takes longer than expected, improvements are more subtle than anticipated, or some symptoms persist.
Dissatisfaction reflects a subjective experience.
A poor outcome reflects a medical result.
They are not the same thing.
Research comparing patient satisfaction scores with objective measures of quality has consistently shown weak correlation between the two¹. This means that dissatisfaction alone is not a reliable indicator of whether care was good or bad.
When dissatisfaction is mistaken for failure, reviews and AI summaries can unintentionally mislead others by suggesting that care was inadequate when it was not.
Recognising this distinction allows patients to pause, seek clarification, and understand what has occurred before assuming something went wrong. It also encourages more meaningful conversations with clinicians about outcomes, recovery, and next steps².
References
- Okike K, Peter-Bond M, Mizrahi S, et al. A comparison of online physician ratings and objective measures of quality. Journal of General Internal Medicine. 2019;34(8):1353–1355.
- Cleary PD. The increasing importance of patient surveys in assessing health care quality. BMJ. 1999;319(7212):720–721.
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- How Patients Should Use Reviews and AI Summaries
- Why a Poor Outcome Does Not Automatically Mean Negligence
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- Why Poor Outcomes Can Occur Even with Good Medical Care
- The Difference Between Risk, Complication, and Error
- Why Medicine Cannot Be Judged Like Other Services
- Why Most Medical Dissatisfaction Comes from Expectation Mismatch
- Dissatisfaction Is Not the Same as a Poor Outcome
- Why Concerns Are Best Discussed with the Clinician First
- Why Dissatisfaction Can Exist After an Excellent Outcome
- Why Communication Before, During, and After Treatment Matters
- Why Good Doctors Are Also Good Communicators
- Why Good Doctors Understand Their Limits and Say So
- Why Good Doctors Sometimes Decline to Treat
- Why Delegated Communication Must Be Excellent to Work
- Why Poor Communication, Not Poor Care, Often Drives Dissatisfaction
