Patient Satisfaction Relation with Sociodemographic Variables in Hospital Health Care in Albania

Abstract

Patient satisfaction is an important factor, which should be considered by health care managers, to evaluate the quality of hospital service. This analysis aims to show the relationship between socio-demographic variables, such as gender, age, level of education, level of income, and patient satisfaction regarding the quality of private and public hospital service in Albania, as well as to determine which of these variables has the major impact, and if there are differences between different groups. The study was conducted in five public and three private hospitals in two of the biggest cities of Albania, Tirana and Durres, where 480 patients were interviewed, over 18 years old who had received services in the five largest hospitals in terms of number of patients, from March to June 2019. The questionnaire was constructed according to the SERVQUAL model with its five main dimensions, and ANOVA analysis of variance and Tukey procedure was used as the method to test the hypotheses. The results showed that the socio-demographic factors that affected patient satisfaction in Albania were mainly age and educational level, results confirmed also from the literature review, while no relationship with gender was observed. In terms of income level, we can say that as revenue increases, the level of patient satisfaction decreases. The results of this study are important to understand the behavior of patients in relation to their satisfaction with health services in Albania, so that different categories receive the appropriate importance when providing health care. The study provides important data for health managers to take measures in improving service quality.