Patient satisfaction in Malaysia's busiest outpatient medical care.

Kurubaran Ganasegeran,Saad Ahmed Ali Jadoo,Rizal Abdul Manaf,Wilson Perianayagam,Sami Abdo Radman Al-Dubai

doi:10.1155/2015/714754

Abstract

This study aimed to explore factors associated with patient satisfaction of outpatient medical care in Malaysia. A cross-sectional exit survey was conducted among 340 outpatients aged between 13 and 80 years after successful clinical consultations and treatment acquirements using convenience sampling at the outpatient medical care of Tengku Ampuan Rahimah Hospital (HTAR), Malaysia, being the country's busiest medical outpatient facility. A survey that consisted of sociodemography, socioeconomic, and health characteristics and the validated Short-Form Patient Satisfaction Questionnaire (PSQ-18) scale were used. Patient satisfaction was the highest in terms of service factors or tangible priorities, particularly “technical quality” and “accessibility and convenience,” but satisfaction was low in terms of service orientation of doctors, particularly the “time spent with doctor,” “interpersonal manners,” and “communication” during consultations. Gender, income level, and purpose of visit to the clinic were important correlates of patient satisfaction. Effort to improve service orientation among doctors through periodical professional development programs at hospital and national level is essential to boost the country's health service satisfaction.

Highlights

Patient satisfaction is defined as a subjective evaluation of the health service received against client’s expectations [1]
It is principally evaluated over seven health service dimensions: general satisfaction, technical quality, interpersonal aspects, communication, financial aspects, time spent with doctor, and the ease of contact or availability [2]
PSQ-18 is comprised of eighteen items with seven dimensions which measures general satisfaction (2 items), technical quality (4 items), interpersonal manner (2 items), communication (2 items), financial aspects (2 items), time spent with doctor (2 items), and accessibility and convenience (4 items)

Summary

Introduction

Patient satisfaction is defined as a subjective evaluation of the health service received against client’s expectations [1]. It is principally evaluated over seven health service dimensions: general satisfaction, technical quality, interpersonal aspects, communication, financial aspects, time spent with doctor, and the ease of contact or availability [2]. In addition to long waiting times, emotional burnout, service orientation of doctors, doctor’s professionalism, the lack of empathy, poor level of competencies, aggressive pursuit of monetary gains, and their disregard for patient suffering in medical practice had caused substantial dissatisfaction towards public healthcare service providers [4, 6, 7].

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Discussion

Conclusion