Perceptions of quality of care in a minority population

Mexican-American patients' perceptions of quality related to the care delivered by health care providers were explored. The review of literature demonstrated that a great volume of work has been done regarding patient satisfaction; however, very few reports of application of this type of research to the Mexican-American population exist. This pilot project attempted to relate the concepts of perception, satisfaction, and quality. Observations occurred in two hospitals with distinctly different patient populations, and results indicated a need to repeat this study with a much larger sample.