Journal of Community Medicine & Health Education
Open Access

Research Article

Patient Satisfaction and Ultrasound Use During Pregnancy

Robert McGrath^*

Associate Professor, Department of Health Management and Policy, University of New Hampshire, Durham, USA

*Corresponding Author:

Robert McGrath
University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH, USA
Tel: 603-862-4401
E-mail: robert.mcgrath@unh.edu

Received date: January 29, 2014; Accepted date: February 21, 2014; Published date: February 24, 2014

Citation: McGrath R (2014) Patient Satisfaction and Ultrasound Use During Pregnancy. J Community Med Health Educ 4:276. doi: 10.4172/2161-0711.1000276

Copyright: © 2014 McGrath R, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Use, number, and frequency of ultrasounds women receive during pregnancy vary widely in practice. Current evidence suggests that women presenting with pregnancy complications benefit from additional ultrasounds, although excessive ultrasound use in low risk pregnancies may be unnecessary, costly and potentially harmful. However, evidence also finds that the use of ultrasound technology is associated with mothers’ feelings of security and satisfaction with care; health care organizations are incentivized to promote these feelings of patient satisfaction, especially when clinical risk is considered low. Here, we examine the impact of ultrasound use on satisfaction during pregnancy among women in the Northeast who have recently given birth through an online retrospective survey. Contrary to expectations, findings suggest that ultrasound use is not a significant driver of satisfaction with pregnancyrelated care. Efforts to enhance patient satisfaction during pregnancy using ultrasounds may increase resource use and cost, but do little to enhance patient experience overall

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