Assessment of Satisfaction Among People Accompanying Patients in the Case of Services Provided at Emergency Department of Hospitals Affiliated to Urmia University of Medical Sciences, Iran

Patient satisfaction is known as a quality outcome measure of quality of care provided by the staff of the emergency department (ED). Many factors effect on the patient satisfaction. Since accompanied patients (AP) play a vital role in providing psycho-social support to patients, their satisfaction can effect on patient satisfaction. However little is known about AP expectations, prospects and satisfaction. The aim of this study is to assessment of accompanying persons' satisfaction from services provided at emergency departments in hospitals of Urmia University of medical sciences. A descriptive-cross-sectional study was conducted in three ED of hospitals affiliated to Urmia university of medical sciences, Iran in 2010. The study population consisted of 400 accompanied patients who were randomly selected from study settings. Data were collected through a self-structured questionnaire that reliability of which had been measured by specialists and validity evaluated by internal consistency method. Collected data analyzed by SPSS software descriptive statistics (SPSS 16.0). The study findings indicated that in the case of services provided at ED of hospitals affiliated to Urmia University 11.69% of AP was dissatisfied and 67.75% was satisfied. Also it has revealed, the greatest satisfaction factors of ED characteristics among AP was meaningful communication with 79,67% followed by accountability with 75.94%, and nurse and staff care with 75.33%. The most dissatisfaction factors were from facilities with 16.76%, costs with 16% and accountability with 13.26%. To achieve maximum quality of health care services, increasing customer (patient and AP) satisfaction based on customer - centered plan can be helpful. Attention to human factors such as communication, right accountability and proper care play a major role for increasing customer satisfaction. Consideration of facilities and cost of treatment are also important in customer satisfaction.