Patient' Satisfaction with Health Service Provided by Family Medicine Clinics at 7th April Health Center

Abstract

Background and purpose: the quality of health care is the probability of obtaining the desired outcomes of health services. Patient satisfaction is an important indicator of evaluating the quality of these services. Given the lack of our own such research we designed this study to assess the satisfaction of patients of family medicine clinics in 7^th April health center with the quality of health service provided to them, and to study the effect of some factors on overall satisfaction of patients such as age, sex and educational attainment.

Materials and methods: a cross-sectional study was conducted on selective sample of 102 family medicine clinics' patients during the period between (14/4/2009 and 30/4/2009). The information was collected (after obtaining the consent of the participant) via an interview using a specially designed questionnaire for this study consisted of 37 single-covering aspects of accessibility, nursing care, communication with the physician, sympathy, respect for the patient's privacy, the doctor's technical skills, providing information, family involvement and overall satisfaction adding to the demographic questions.

Results: The sample consisted of 102 patients, including 55 female (53.92%), aged 19-69 years, varied educational levels from illiteracy 3.92% down to 25.49% University. 65.68% of the interviewees expressed satisfaction with total health care they received at the Center, 78.43% of them expressed their great satisfaction with the level of education and information they receive, only that half of the respondents (50.98%) said that the time allotted for clinical examination is insufficient, 79.41% of surveyed patients indicated that they rarely involved regarding the available options to manage their illness or their consent token before any clinical procedure by 85.29% of the study sample, and the doctors didn't grant any time for the patient to express his feelings and fears as 88.23%, the nurses didn't provide any clarifications or recommendations regarding the status of 58.82% of clinics' patients. Statistically significant relationship was observed between both low educational level and the younger class with the degree of satisfaction (p = 0.00023) and (p = 0.037) respectively, while non-statistically significant relationship between female gender and level of satisfaction (p = 0.105).

Conclusion: It is recommended to give continuous medical education programs prominence and focus on developing communication skills among doctors, in addition to the need to qualify and activate the role of nursing staff.