Objectives

To identify the most relevant dimensions for measuring patient satisfaction in urgent care centers. Also, to provide recommendations, based on the literature, both to provide a better service and to conduct further research.

Materials and Methods

A systematic review was performed in 5 databases: Jstor, Proquest, SciELO Public Health, Science Direct and Redalyc, using as search criteria: "Patient Satisfaction", "Quality Of Care", "Satisfaction With Care", "Patients' Perception Of Care", "Emergency Department" And "Emergency Medical Service". Full-text articles in Spanish and English and published between 1990 and 2015 were pre-selected. Of 172 articles, 42 empirical studies were included in the analysis.

Results

39% of the articles were from North America, 38% from Europe, 11% from Asia, 5% from South America, 3% from Oceania and Australia and 2% from Africa and Central America. Eleven dimensions to measure patient satisfaction in urgent care centers with their respective associated variables were identified as frequently used and statistically significant.

Conclusions

Patient satisfaction is a multidimensional variable of quality healthcare. Communication, customer service, courtesy and waiting times are considered the factors that should be adjusted to increase levels of satisfaction. Sociodemographic variables such as race, health status and age of the patient need to be assessed and studied, since they have effects on the level of satisfaction. Likewise, the correlation between satisfaction and intention to return to the medical center provides opportunities for administrators and investigators of the healthcare area for future work.