Hospital Characteristics and the Patient Satisfaction in Lahore, Pakistan

Objective: Organizational set up of a hospital is broadly responsible to the transfer of services, their usefulness, and structural performance in patient outcomes. In current research, we study the relationship between hospital characteristics and several dimensions of patient satisfaction. Methods: Cross sectional data of 1680 patients admitted in 14 public and private hospitals located in Lahore, Pakistan was collected through a self-administered questionnaire during March, 2015 to August, 2015. Pearson and Spearman correlation techniques were used in SPSS 21 to find the desired relationships. Results: Patients were significantly (p<0.05) less satisfied in old aged hospitals as compared to the hospitals recently start operating. High income patients were less satisfied with the hospital than the low income patients. In addition, patients with long duration of stay at hospital were more satisfied than the short stay. Conclusion: Patient satisfaction is a key component in choosing a hospital for receiving services and also for recommending it to others. It indicates the service quality as well as its delivery. A common tool to improve the quality of care in hospital is to conduct a patients' satisfaction survey to explore the factors and areas affecting the satisfaction level and also to find out the reasons for dissatisfaction.