Analysis of the user satisfaction level in a public physical therapy service

Background: The concepts of quality management have increasingly been introduced into the health sector. Methods to measure satisfaction and quality are examples of this trend. Objective: This study aimed to identify the level of customer satisfaction in a physical therapy department involved in the public area and to analyze the key variables that impact the users' perceived quality. Method: A cross-sectional observational study was conducted, and 95 patients from the physical therapy department of the Hospital Universitario Gaffree e Guinle - Universidade Federal do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (HUGG/UNIRIO) - Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, were evaluated by the SERVQUAL questionnaire. A brief questionnaire to identify the sociocultural profile of the patients was also performed. Results: Patients from this health service presented a satisfied status with the treatment, and the population final average value in the questionnaire was 0.057 (a positive value indicates satisfaction). There was an influence of the educational level on the satisfaction status (chi(2)=17,149; p=0.002). A correlation was found between satisfaction and the dimensions of tangibility (rho=0.56, p=0.05) and empathy (rho=0.46, p=0.01) for the Unsatisfied group. Among the Satisfied group, the dimension that was correlated with the final value of the SERVQUAL was responsiveness (rho=0.44, p=0.01). Conclusions: The final values of the GGUH physical therapy department showed that patients can be satisfied even in a public health service. Satisfaction measures must have a multidimensional approach, and we found that people with more years of study showed lower values of satisfaction.