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Objective: Patients’ role in treatment decision-making can influence psychosocial and health-related outcomes (i.e. satisfaction, felt respect, adherence). We examined decisional control in a surgical context, identifying correlates of patients’ preferences and experiences. Design: 380 patients and 7 surgeons were surveyed during initial surgical consultation visits in a low-income outpatient clinic. Measures: Patients reported preferences for (pre-consultation) and experiences of (post-consultation) decisional control, demographics, satisfaction with care, and adherence to treatment recommendations. Surgeons rated patients’ health status. Results: Preferences for and experiences of decisional control were unrelated, suggesting significant preference–experience misalignment. However, this misalignment did not appear to be consequential for patient outcomes. Rather, more decisional control, regardless of patients’ preferences, predicted greater satisfaction with care and greater self-reported adherence as assessed at a post-surgical appointment. Conclusions: Decisional control predicts better outcomes for patients, regardless of their preferences for control over treatment decisions. These findings suggest that interventions should aim to increase patients’ degree of decisional control when feasible and appropriate. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Background: Patient satisfaction is an important patient outcome because it informs researchers and practitioners about patients' experience and identifies potential problems with their care. Patient satisfaction is typically studied through physician-patient interactions in primary care settings, and little is known about satisfaction with surgical consultations., Methods: Participants responded to questionnaires before and after a surgical consultation. The study was conducted in a diverse outpatient clinic within a county hospital in Southern California. Participants were patients who came to the surgery clinic for their first appointment after referral from a primary care provider for a surgical consultation., Results: Patients' ethnicity, educational attainment, and insurance status predict their satisfaction, and patients reliably differed in their satisfaction with care providers and with the hospital where they received their care., Conclusions: These findings add to knowledge about patient care by highlighting associations between patients' demographic characteristics and patients' differential satisfaction with particular entities within the context of surgical care., (Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)