Abstract for:The Empowered Patient Wants Shared Decision Making – How can System Dynamics Modeling Help?

One of the keys to performance improvement and enhancement is customer and patient satisfaction. Paying detailed attention to the requirements is one of the most critical aspects when designing a product or offering a service. Making sure that we understand exactly what the customer or patient needs and offering that service to them and also including their idea and thought is also important. In a hospital environment, the quality, being on time, safety, cost, friendliness, the overall look of the office or facility, ethics, and several other factors would have impact on customer satisfaction and these would be factors that need to be considered among others. Patient participation or shared decision making is another perception which helps to generate better decision quality and will eventually result in a more efficient care. Patients’ knowledge will be improved and patients will become more satisfied. This paper applies a systems thinking method and utilizes a system dynamics approach that explores factors and factor relationships that are most important related to patient satisfaction and patient participation.