Patient Satisfaction in Out-patient Services at a Tertiary Care Center: A Descriptive Cross-sectional Study

Introduction: Patient satisfaction is an important and commonly used valid indicator for the measurement of service quality. Patient responses to healthcare services are one of the best ways to obtain information about patient views regarding the quality of healthcare. The main aim of the study was to find out the patient's satisfaction level in the tertiary care center. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among 94 outpatients at a tertiary care center. Data were collected after obtaining ethical clearance from the institutional review committee. Patients were selected conveniently who visited any four of the major department. We collected demographic data and the patient satisfaction towards outpatient clinic experience was studied. We used the Patient Satisfaction Questionnaire-18 to assess patient satisfaction. Data were entered and analyzed in Statistical Package for the Social Sciences version 23. The mean score and the standard deviation were calculated. Results: Overall satisfaction was 74.78% with a mean value of 3.7394 +/- 0.40128. The highest satisfaction score was found in regards to the interpersonal manner of health personnel (4.2872 +/- 0.61561) followed by communication (3.9628 +/- 0.40982) and the lowest was seen in accessibility and convenience (3.2394 +/- 0.81478). Conclusions: The mean score and percentage of patient satisfaction were high in the hospital. However, the accessibility and availability of medical personnel were only a matter of concern.