Table 3.

Health system and clinic-level dimensions of patient experiences within Chinatown healthcare settings

Theme	Chinatown safety net hospital experiences, Sub-themes & exemplar quotes	Chinatown private practice clinic experiences, Sub-themes & exemplar quotes
Wait times & appointment scheduling	Appointment scheduling expectations • Minor illnesses will turn into major ones. You can’t make an immediate appointment when you have some minor illnesses. He would ask you why you didn’t make an appointment earlier. I said how I would know if I would get sick today. Emergency care wait times • I arrived at [the] Hospital with such high pressure. But I didn’t faint nor was I dead. What happened next? I waited there for 5 hours! […] Anyway, my advice to you all, you can go to Emergency Room of all different hospitals, but just don’t go to [that] Hospital. • My daughter’s son, when he was 11 years, his hand fractured. The bone came out from these two sides, very dangerous. We took him to the hospital immediately […] Waited for five hours, poor little kid […] At the end, we waited for a long time. He had broken skin that caused bacterial infection. That bacterial infection later became inflamed so he needed a surgery.	Appointment scheduling expectations • It’s that doctors in Chinatown are never on time, even with appointments. Have to wait for one hour, and sometimes, even longer. This arrangement is not good. Why make an appointment? An appointment is to give you a time. Rationalizing wait times • China people are accustomed to seeing China doctors. So there’s not a lot of doctors for the people over here […] So, you wait for a few hours to go in to see the doctor. The doctor will then be done with in you in ten minutes. • I think there are probably too many people for the doctors in our Chinatown. You waited a few hours, and consulted for less than two minutes. • Waiting for so long to see the doctor, there are lots of patients. There’s nothing you can do, it’s like that in Chinatown.
Medical care	Dissatisfaction with emergency care quality • Let me be honest, many things have been delayed (or postponed) […] I have a relative whose kid got low fevers all the time from age 1 to 3. He stayed at [the] Hospital for a week but they couldn’t find out what’s wrong and his fever didn’t go away. • [The] Hospital made an ER patient who was on IV drip to go to the washroom on her own! […] When I had to go to the washroom by myself, I could have collapsed. I seriously think I could have collapsed anytime, I didn’t eat anything at the time, I was so weak, I only felt better after getting IV drip. [This] Hospital is really bad! Quality of care relative to costs • There was a time I called the ambulance, and went to [the] Hospital. Those doctors were quite good. They did checkups, checkups were good, didn’t cost anything! • I’ve also experienced an illness around 2 months ago. So I went and got hospitalized at [the] hospital – emergency hospitalization. I feel that for the retired elderly from Chicago and the low-income elderly, I feel that welfare and these aspects of health care are quite convenient. As I hold both the red-blue [Medicare] and the white card [Medicaid], everything is complete.	Poor quality of providers & care received • I think there are no good doctors in Chinatown. • Doctors here don’t know anything, fraud. • About 10, 20 years ago. A gynecologist in Chinatown, male, very bad […] I went for checkup. He said I had cervical cancer. I said you were that good?! You knew I had cervical cancer with just by looking with your eyes? • I felt that [Chinatown doctors] want to protect their medical license, so they won’t kill you but they couldn’t cure you. Negative perceptions of clinic operations • One thing is, sick leave slips. Certain doctors in Chinatown, if you ask them for sick leave slips, they will charge for it. […] for a 3-day sick leave, three days cost over $100 to get the sick leave slip. She was really sick, just because she was so sick she went to get sick leave slip. Certain doctors in Chinatown charged people for that. Resignation to only being able to receive care in Chinatown settings • I visited doctors in Chinatown because I have no other choice, I have been seeing them for over a decade. • I don’t know if because Chinatown doctors know that Chinatown people can never leave Chinatown, so the medical service has no quality assurance.
Front desk customer service	Mixed impressions of customer service quality • There are some at [that hospital], some whose service attitude isn’t great. I went for a mammogram once. After filling in the registration, [the man at registration] said, “OK, put it this way.” He said that I have to hand it to that hand of his. There are some with good attitude, some with bad attitude. The Chinese people over there at [that hospital] are really good. Truly great at relaying information. But some people just have to give you bad expressions. • The front counter personnel greet people with a smile. Whether if it is pretend or not, they always asked ‘may I help you?’ ‘What can I do for you?’ This kind of question, and always smile. Always smile like that.	Perceived attitude of front desk staff • The person in front of the door isn’t good. The no-good door keeper. I don’t owe him (anything). Why (does he) have to be this fierce? • The window (front desk) is the most important! If your window is not good, how do you do business at the back? • Those at the front desk have bad attitude, they scold you when you ask a few more questions. One time I let the [front desk person] help me make an x-ray appointment at [that hospital]. I just asked if Saturday was available. She got so mad right away, asking “Are you going to make this appointment or not?” That was my first time, I didn’t know so I asked you. When I asked you, if it’s available then say yes; if no, just say no. Saturday. She said if I don’t make that appointment, she would make appointment for the next person. It’s not good to talk to people like that.