ObjectiveTo understand the experiences of out-patient services of the elderly patients, and to analyze the impact factors of the satisfaction of elderly patients, so as to produce evidence for healthcare quality improvement. MethodsBased on the data collected from the out-patient survey of the 2015 Evaluation of the National Healthcare Improvement Initiative, we compared the disparities of patient satisfaction among different age-groups, between different geographic regions and different types of hospitals. We conducted multivariate binary logistic regression analysis to identify factors, associated with the satisfaction of the elderly outpatients. We also compared satisfaction of the Chinese elderly patients with healthcare services with other countries. ResultsSatisfaction scores of the Chinese elderly out-patients were statistically significant higher than that of the young and middle aged out-patients in the domains of hospital environment (satisfaction score=4.42), process efficiency (satisfaction score=4.20), and overall satisfaction (satisfaction score=4.47) (P < 0.001). On the contrary, the elderly out-patients were less satisfied in the domain of hospital informationization experience (satisfaction score=4.25) than the young and middle aged out-patients. This was also the case for the three indicators under this domain, including convenient appointment (satisfaction score=4.27), diversified payment methods (satisfaction score=4.24) and self-service devices (satisfaction score=4.26) (P < 0.001). Western region and traditional Chinese hospitals had significantly lower elderly outpatient satisfaction comparing with eastern and central regions, and general & specialist hospitals (P < 0.05). Trustful doctor-patient relationship (OR=3.45), respected and comfortable care (OR=1.45), clear and reliable mechanism and channel for praise and complain (OR=1.39), length of communication time with doctors (OR=1.35) and length of waiting time until consultation is acceptable (OR=1.29) were the major factors associated with the overall satisfaction of the elderly out-patients. The overall satisfaction of the Chinese elderly out-patients is a bit lower than that in our neighboring country Japan. The satisfaction towards length of communication with doctors of the Chinese elderly patients is lower than that in most of the industrialized countries. ConclusionSpecial demands of the elderly patients should be carefully considered by hospitals in the process of developing new appointment methods and hospital informationization with the aim of healthcare improvement. Longer communication time with doctors, shorter waiting time until consultation, improving human care and building efficiency mechanism and channel for praise and complain are the priorities for future healthcare improvement.