Assessment of Health Services Provided by Women's Health Centre, Nasser Institute for Research and Treatment, Cairo

Abstract

Background Healthcare quality has become an important topic for practitioners, researchers and managers as it has great effect on cost reduction and services improvement. Recently, the role of individuals working in health institutions is very important for reaching the institutions’ goals. The satisfaction of the healthcare workers and the consequences of their satisfaction are good indicators of the quality and well-being of workers’ life. Patient satisfaction is a subjective evaluation of the health service received against client’s expectations. It is principally based on evaluating seven health service dimensions: general satisfaction, technical quality, interpersonal aspects, communication, financial aspects, time spent with doctor, and the ease of contact or availability. Objective To assess health services in women health centre in Nasser Institute and to analyze the customers’ opinions at women’s health centre. Methods This cross-sectional study was conducted at women’s health centre in Nasser institute for research and treatment. Evaluation of services in the women's health centre was done according to Well-Woman recommendations. The healthcare workers in the centre were 10 and all of them were given self-administered job satisfaction questionnaire adapted from a questionnaire of a previous study in Nigeria. Sample of client women included 210 women visiting the centre who were interviewed using SERVQUAL (questionnaire. Results Immunization services were missing at the centre according to Well-Woman recommendations. Regarding, health care workers, mean age of participating healthcare workers (Mean ± SD) was 45 ± 9.6 years. The majority of healthcare workers were female (80%). Sixty percent of healthcare workers think that there is a need to improve the service packages. Regarding women seeking the services in the centre, the mean age of study participants (Mean ± SD) was 53.7 ± 11.4 years. Most of participating women were between 45 to less than 65 years (62.9%). Most of them (82.4%) were highly educated, 69.5 % were married and 78.1% knew the services from friends and relatives. Average gap score of total SERVQUAL dimensions was (Mean ± SD) 0.6 ± 0.3. Conclusions and recommendations According to Well-Woman recommendation, there is a defect in the comprehensive medical services in women health centre at Nasser Institute and immunization is absent. Total satisfaction rate was high for healthcare workers and women receiving the service. It is recommended to introduce more services in the centre such as immunization as well as more investigations such as Hepatitis C and B testing. Periodic professional development and training programs for healthcare workers are also recommended.