Abstract
Background and Objectives:Patient satisfaction with the family physician program is an important factor for more favorable treatment results. Evaluation of patient satisfaction improves the services and approximates them to patient’s preferences. The family physician program has been executed since late March, 2005 in Iran. This study aimed to measure patient satisfaction with family physician services and determines factors affecting the level of satisfaction in order to propose appropriate suggestions for providing medical services based on patients’ expectations.Methods:Forty-one centers provide healthcare services in rural and urban areas. The participants in this study comprised 1263 people. The data were collected by an inventory with 11 items about demographic specifications, waiting time and the importance of physician’s sex and 40 items for assessing the level of patient satisfaction.Results:A total of 1199 patients participated in the current study, 72.1% of them were female and 19.6% waited 10-20 minutes for receiving services. About 55.72% of the participants chose high and very high for the items of the inventory. Total satisfaction with the family physician program decreased with age (p-value= 0.029).Moreover, total satisfaction did not show any significant differences in different groups in terms of sex, place of residence, education level and marital status. Also family physicians’ sex did not affect patient satisfaction significantly. Based on results of regression model, an increase in patients’ age by one year decreased their satisfaction by 0.12 and level of satisfaction in rural patients was lower than that in urban patients by 7.93.Conclusions:The level of patient satisfaction with family physician services was moderate, which mostly arose from the components of the family physician program and services such as the waiting time, costs, welfare facilities, accessibility and the service-providing team rather than patients’ personal characteristics.
Highlights
Total satisfaction with the family physician program decreased with age (p-value= 0.029).total satisfaction did not show any significant differences in different groups in terms of sex, place of residence, education level and marital status
The level of patient satisfaction with family physician services was moderate, which mostly arose from the components of the family physician program and services such as the waiting time, costs, welfare facilities, accessibility and the service-providing team rather than patients’ personal characteristics
According to Article 91 of the Fourth Economic, Social and Cultural Development Plan of Islamic Republic of Iran (2005-2009) stating that necessary measures should be performed to establish the health insurance and execute the family physician program and the referral system up to the end of the fourth development plan, the family physician program has been executed with the cooperation of the Ministry of Welfare and Social Security and the Ministry of Health and Medical Education in nomadic and rural areas and cities with a population fewer than 20,000 people since late March, 2005 (Khadivi, Golshiri, Farasat, & Khaledi, 2013; Torabian, Cheraghi, &Azarhomayoon, 2013)
Summary
Patient satisfaction is an essential indicator of the quality of health services (Ekram & Rahman, 2006; Fenton, Jerant, Bertakis, & Franks, 2012; Hjortdahl & Laerum, 1992; Lee, Tu, Chong, & Alter, 2008; Lemley & Marks, 2009; Mendoza, Smith, Eder, & Hickner, 2011) and the focus of decision makers in the health sector in the world (Hudak, Hogg-Johnson, Bombardier, McKeever, & Wright, 2004; Rundle-Thiele & Russell-Bennett, 2010). Given that the family physician program should meet the credibility and forward-thinking to meet healthcare needs of the society (Organek et al, 2012), the evaluation of patient satisfaction allows the family physicians to obtain appropriate information about the level of fulfilled needs of patients and identify those dimensions of services with which the patients are less satisfied and make an effort to improve the services (Ekram& Rahman, 2006; Farzadi et al, 2011; Grogan, Conner, Willits, & Norman, 1995; Rundle-Thiele & Russell-Bennett, 2010; Zgierska et al, 2014). This study aimed to measure patient satisfaction with family physician services and determines factors affecting the level of satisfaction in order to propose appropriate suggestions for providing medical services based on patients’ expectations
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