Abstrait

Assessment of Patient Satisfaction and Associated Factors with Services Provided at Outpatient Departments of Primary Hospitals in Gurage Zone, Southern Ethiopia

Dereje Mesfin

Background: Some authors define patient satisfaction as a degree of congruence between patient expectations of ideal care and their perceptions of real care received. Asking patients what they think about the care and treatment they have received is an important step towards improving the quality of care and, ensuring that local health services are meeting patient needs and expectations. Methodology: Facility- based cross-sectional study was conducted from April 1 - 7, 2019 in randomly selected primary hospitals found in Guraghe zone. 266 randomly selected patients who attended the primary hospitals were participated in the study. Data was collected using a intervieweradministered structured questionnaire and analyzed using SPSS version 21. Multiple logistic regression analysis used to identify predictors of patient satisfaction. Result: The overall of patient satisfaction level with the health service provided at the outpatient departments of the primary hospitals was 66.5% (95% C.I. 60.8% - 72.2%). waiting time (AOR 3.65), informing patients about cause of illness (AOR, 2.46) and waiting area cleanliness (AOR 2.33) were among the significant predictors of patients satisfaction. Conclusion: Acknowledging the limitation of the cross-sectional study design findings of this study indicate that waiting time, telling the cause of illness,cleanliness of the waiting area are important predictors of patient satisfaction. Hospital management and service providers should work towards reducing waiting time and improve the cleanness of the waiting area. Health professionals should also try to inform their patients about the causes and treatments of their illness.