Patient Satisfaction

An early satisfaction survey from 1989 demonstrated that patients of chiropractors were three times as likely as patients of family physicians to respond that they were satisfied with the care they received for low back pain. Chiropractic patients were also more likely to have been satisfied with the amount of information they were given and to believe their doctors were concerned about them. This study was conducted at the Group Health Cooperative of Puget Sound, a 40-year-old staff-model Health Maintenance Organization(HMO) in western Washington State with 32,000 enrollees. The percentage of chiropractic patients who were very satisfied with the care they received for low back pain was triple that for patients of family physicians (66 percent versus 22 percent). Patients of family physicians were significantly less likely to report having received a graphic description of the causes of low back pain or instruction on exercise, posture and lifting techniques.

In a 2008 study researchers sought to determine the satisfaction patients had with providers based on provider type. The researchers were particularly interested in bedside manner and effectiveness of care and conducted interviews periodically with 1,831 workers who experienced worker related low back pain. Researchers found that individuals were more satisfied with their health care when treated by surgeons, chiropractors (DCs), or physical therapists and less satisfied with the care received by MDs.