Abstract
Patient satisfaction can identify specific areas of improvement in public sector hospitals. However, the Pakistani healthcare system, and quality of service delivery is rarely assessed through the perspective of patient satisfaction. Our study demonstrated the performance of public healthcare systems in Pakistan by interacting with physical services (tangible and environmental), doctor–patient communication, and pharmacy and laboratory services based on patient satisfaction. Primary data were collected from the patients by using a random sampling method. Patients who participated in the study were visitors of public hospitals’ outpatient departments. A total of 554 questionnaires were circulated, and 445 were received. The confirmatory factor and multiple regression analyses were employed to analyze the collected data. The results revealed that laboratory, as well pharmacy services, had positive significant effects (p = 0.000) on patient satisfaction, while doctor–patient communication (p = 0.189) and physical facilities (p = 0.85) had an insignificant relationship with patient satisfaction. Therefore, it is suggested that a significant communication gap exists in the doctor–patient setting, and that Pakistan’s healthcare system is deprived of physical facilities. Consequently, such services need further improvements.
Highlights
Developing nations are making every effort to entitle their citizens to receive fundamental healthcare because of limited consumer resources [1]
The first portion dealt with demographic characteristics, and the second part measured the quality of services delivery, which included the pharmacy services, the laboratory services, doctor–patient communication, and physical facilities
The results revealed that all variables’ reliabilities (α) exceeded the acceptable threshold value of 0.70 as suggested by [59,60]
Summary
Developing nations are making every effort to entitle their citizens to receive fundamental healthcare because of limited consumer resources [1]. Public hospitals play an essential role in providing health facilities or services for citizens who seek fundamental medical service, while the outpatient department (OPD) role is very effective [2]. Speaking, if the world had a fundamental healthcare system that was universally recognized as providing low quality, that would only incur greater misery and suffering In this hypothetical system, the cost of healthcare would further burden and intensify, increasing patient concern and worry. A large number of Pakistani citizens are in despair believing that the country’s healthcare sector is severely damaged by corruption [9] In accordance with these factual figures, it has become increasingly necessary to revise and assess the performance of feebly performing, less developed countries and to counterbalance their performance with that of their counterparts in the developed world. Central and state governments have their own independent public healthcare setups [12]
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