Patients' Satisfaction with Primary Health Care Services at Capital Health Region, Kuwait

Objective: To evaluate patients' satisfaction with Primary Health Care Centers' (PHCCs) services at Capital Health Region. Subjects and Methods: A cross sectional survey using an Arabic language questionnaire was conducted between January and August 2003. The questionnaire included socio-demographic characteristics as well as the overall and differential satisfaction with the different aspects of services in the PHCC at Capital Health Region rated from 1-5 points ranged from very dissatisfied through to very satisfied, the higher the score the higher the satisfaction. A convenient sample of 1250 patients attending the PHCC aged 18 years and above was included in the study. Results: The response rate of completed questionnaires was 82.8%. Female subjects constituted 52.2% of all participants. More than two-thirds of the subjects were married, about 79.2% were Kuwaitis, 34% were 31-40 years of age, more than one-third of the subjects were clerks and 23.6% completed secondary school. The mean score of overall satisfaction was 4.59 out of a maximum of 5 points. The highest satisfaction was for pharmacy (4.62 mean points) and the lowest for buildings (3.95 mean points). Subjects aged above 50 years showed the highest overall and differential satisfaction. Male subjects and those who completed primary school showed the highest overall satisfaction (4.63 mean points and 4.68 mean points respectively). Other socio-demographic characteristics were not significantly related to overall satisfaction scores. Conclusion: There is a growing interest in many countries in assessing and assuring quality of health care. It is also being increasingly recognised that consumer satisfaction should be taken in to account as part of the assessment of quality of care. The results of our study showed that although the overall satisfaction was high, some aspects of the services indicated some degree of dissatisfaction. Also, some physicians' service items need suggestions and corrective intervention. Female and young patients appear to need more attention.