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ABSTRACT
Background: Measuring patient satisfaction is a key factor in assessing the quality of patient care. Patient satisfaction outcomes are affected by many variables. Identifying and analyzing effective factors related to patients’ overall satisfaction constitutes an essential aspect of the study of modern healthcare.
Aim: The aim of this study is to determine the factors vital to patients’ satisfaction with outpatient service.
Methods: A cross-sectional study design was carried out from April to June 2015, consisting of 945 patients in the outpatient services division of King Fahd Hospital of the Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University. Subjects were selected through the simple random sampling method, and data were collected using a structured questionnaire. The questionnaire was checked for validity and reliability using the Cronbach α coefficient and Reliability analysis. The factor analysis technique was used to find the most significant factors affecting patient satisfaction.
Results: Exploratory factor analysis showed that the outpatients’ satisfaction comprised four factors namely, professional care, availability of services, waiting time, and satisfaction of laboratory service. These four factors explained 82% of the total variance of patient satisfaction. Based on the results of the factor analysis, satisfaction with physician services and appointment service was identified as the most important aspects of overall satisfaction.
Conclusion: Physician-related services, the waiting time for getting test reports, and the wait time for appointment are the major factors affecting patient satisfaction in the outpatient department. Hence, improving the quality of these factors will improve the overall quality of outpatient services for patients.
Acknowledgements
We thank the medical director of King Fahd Hospital of the University for approving this project and patients for the cooperation with the researcher to fill out the questionnaire.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes on contributors
Dr Ahmed Alkuwaiti “with 29+ years of academic and research experience, Dr. Ahmed AlKuwaiti comes with strong expertise in medical education, quality in healthcare, hospital facilities management safety, patient safety and risk management. Having established various organizations and programs, he has many journal publications, books and conference presentations to his credit.”
Dr Thennarasu Maruthamuthu, PhD, has been a Statistician in the deanship of quality and academic accreditation at Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, Saudi Arabia. His work is centered on developing and integrating innovative statistical models to advance the quality of healthcare process and its outcomes.
Dr Seval Akgun, PhD is a Professor of Public Health in Baskent University School of Medicine and St. John International University, Italy and USA with more than 30 plus years of strong experience in data management, statistical analysis, and accreditation in health care and epidemiological studies including the assessment of burden of diseases, health and nutritional status indices.
