Assessment of Consumer Satisfaction to Improve Quality of Services Provided in Tertiary Care Hospital of Uttar Pradesh- A Cross-sectional Study

Abstract

Introduction: Satisfaction of the patient play a very important decisive factor for pay-for-performance metrics and it also replicates the type of care being provided. One of the major parameters to establish patient satisfaction is to measure success of services provided in hospital. Aim: To assess the quality of care in terms of patient’s satisfaction in a tertiary care hospital of Uttar Pradesh. Materials and Methods: A community based cross-sectional study was carried out among patients attending the Outpatient Department (OPD) at Varunarjun Medical College and Rohilkhand Hospital, Uttar Pradesh, India. Total 88 people (patients or attendants) were interviewed by using a predesigned and pretested semi-structured proforma, in Hindi language. The questionnaire contained questions related to an individual’s experience with the staff and environment of health system at the end of their outpatient visit. Data were analysed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20.0. Results: The majority 37 (42.0%) belonged to age group of 34-49 years, 58 (66%) were males, 36 (40.9%) educated upto high school and 45 (51.2%) belonged to general category. In the present study, regarding hospital informatory, 28 (31.8%) respondent found good direction indicators. Waiting period was less than half-an-hour reported by 47 (53.4%) patients. Sixty-three (71.5%) patients had opportunity to ask questions about their disease and treatment. Most of the respondent 50 (56.8%) said that hospital staff listened to their questions and problems. Statistically significant association was found in- between patient satisfaction and socio-demographic variable like age, gender, education and socio-economic status (p-value <0.05). Around 68 (77.2%) respondent were not satisfied with behaviour of hospital staff (nurses and paramedical staff) whereas only 35 (39.8%) respondent were satisfied with the behaviour of treating doctor. Conclusion: Among the different domains of measurements of patient satisfaction, only few were satisfied with doctor’s and paramedical staff. Doctor's time, behaviour of paramedical staff and poor quality of services were the main reasons for dissatisfaction among dissatisfied patients.