Patient and staff satisfaction in outpatient substance abuse treatment programs.

Patient and staff turnover are significant therapeutic and management concerns in substance abuse treatment programs. Some literature suggest a positive correlation between patient satisfaction and successful outcome, while other studies are inconclusive. The treatment environment (location, physical space, and cultural milieu) is also associated with successful outcomes. Although providers often represent that they are satisfied with their jobs this seems to be contradicted by high staff turnover. Initiated in 2006 and based on completed CTN protocol CTN-0016 (“Patient Feedback : A Performance Improvement Study in Outpatient Addiction Treatment Settings”), the Patient Feedback study is a randomized, effectiveness trial, implementing a quality improvement (QI) system at 20 outpatient, substance abuse treatment programs. Patients’ baseline assessments were self-reported on survey instruments capturing ratings of treatment satisfaction. Clinic demographic forms and four self-report surveys assessing job satisfaction captured baseline data from providers along the following domains: 1) quality of director-employee relationships, 2) organizational characteristics, and 3) intrinsic/extrinsic satisfaction. Preliminary analysis from surveys of 679 patients reveals very high treatment satisfaction across patients of various treatment durations, including 227 patients in treatment for 1 month or less. Job satisfaction amongst 76 clinicians will be presented based on scores from the LMX-7 (evaluates interactions between directors and employees), the ORC (18 domains assessing organizational characteristics), and the MSQ (scale rating job satisfaction). Additional findings will be presented on gender, ethnicity, and length-of-treatment on patient and staff satisfaction. In conclusion, these findings have implications for the development and implementation of QI systems to enhance treatment outcomes and the work environment in substance abuse programs.

Related protocols: CTN-0016