Patient Satisfaction among Adult Hypertensives Attending the Medical Outpatient Clinic of a Tertiary Healthcare Facility in South-South Nigeria - Abstract
Background: Over time patient satisfaction has gained widespread recognition as a measure of quality health services. There is a need to ascertain the level of satisfaction of patients with chronic medical conditions such as hypertension. This is pertinent in the sense that when patients are satisfied they will follow the treatment protocols and keep on utilizing the health services, thereby improving the outcome of care and health-seeking behavior.Methods: This study was a cross-sectional study involving patients attending the Hypertension Clinic of the Federal Medical Centre, Asaba. Data was collected via systemic sampling method using pre-tested interviewer-administered questionnaires and analyzed using SPSS software version 22.0
Results: Two hundred respondents were recruited for the study and 88.5% of the respondents were satisfied with care. Among the respondents 131 (65.5%) were females, 80 (40.0%) had secondary school education and 128 (64.0%) were married. Level of patient satisfaction was significantly associated with educational level and occupation of the respondents. Also, statistically significant associations were found between the socio-demographic characteristics of gender, marital status, and educational level and the patient satisfaction components of access to care, patient waiting time, patient-provider relationship and hospital bureaucracy.
Conclusion: Patient satisfaction was found to be significantly associated with certain socio-demographic characteristics of the study population