Accessibility of End-Stage Renal Disease Patients to Health Care Services of a Specialized Hospital

Abstract

Objective: This study was conducted to assess accessibility of ESRD patients to health care services of a specialized hospital. Methods: The study was a cross-sectional study, which was conducted at the National Institute of Kidney Diseases and Urology (NIKDU), Sher-E-Bangla Nagar, Dhaka, Bangladesh during the period from January to December 2021. The study included 384 ESRD patients, who were selected by purposive sampling technique. Data were collected by face-to-face interview with a pretested, semi- structured questionnaire and data were analyzed by current Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) 25 version. Associations of the categorical data were assessed by using Chi-square (x2) test. Prior to data collection, informed written consent was taken from each patient. Results: The study revealed that males (67.2%) and females (32.8%) were portion with mean age of 48.2±12.1 years. More than three fourth (79.9%) were married and 32.3% had graduation and it’s above of education level while 1.6% were illiterate. One forth was housewives; average family size was 5.17 (±2.00) and average monthly family income was Tk.44820.31 (±48545.87). More than fifty percent (58%) of the patients had come to the hospital from 30 kilometer away. About three forth (75.3%) of the patients went to the hospital by bus and 1.6% by rickshaw. Most of the patients (82%) were needed for admission within last one month and very fewer (10%) had got bed for admission. Average waiting time was 5.6 (±3.4) months to get dialysis schedule. Off all, 70.6 % got fewer prescribed drugs for dialysis treatment, majority (81.8%) got Femoral/Jugular catheterization service and only 2% got arteri-venous fistula services by the hospital. Among all participants, more than fifty percent (55.7%) got easy access for laboratory test and 28.1% got for radiological test. About half (56%) of the patients got cooperation by hospital staffs. It was found that males (46.5%) had significantly (p<0.05) average accessibility to the health care services than their counterpart females (21.8%). On the residency, rural patients (8.3%), had significantly (p<0.05) poor accessibility to health care services than urban patients (4.4%). Majority (68%) ESRD patients had average level of accessibility to health care services followed by “good” (19.0%) and “poor” (13.0%). Conclusion: To improve the accessibility of the End-Stage Renal Disease patients to the health care services of a specialized hospital, associated problems must be overcome by effective measures and program interventions.