Patients' Satisfaction on Services of Out Patient Department of Secondary Level Public Hospitals in the Northern Region of Bangladesh.

Abstract

The recent achievement in health sector of Bangladesh has got much recognition. To monitor the performance of its health services, the Government has implemented a new health management system. However, this health service delivery system is inadequate against huge expectancy and discrimination in center to periphery. The study was aimed to investigate the patients' satisfaction status on out patient department (OPD) services of secondary level public hospitals in the northern region of Bangladesh and the factors associated with it. This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among the OPD patients of Lalmonirhat 100 Bedded Hospital, Lalmonirhat and General Hospital, Kurigram, Bangladesh. The study was conducted from January 2018 to December 2018 among 400 respondents who were interviewed and data were collected using a partially structured questionnaire by the authors. A large number of respondents (38.3%) were in the age group of 18 to 30 years with the mean age beings 40.09 (range: 18-81 years). Majority of the respondents (52.5%) were female. Housewife was found to be the profession of 35.0% of the respondents and 66.8% of them were married. The average monthly household income of the respondents was Tk. 9648.75±6653.70. Majority (70.5%) of the respondents commented that happiness of care was satisfactory. Most of the respondents (62.5%) agreed that they will recommend this institution to others and 62.3% of the respondents were satisfied with the treatment. Among the respondents, 58.1% agreed that hospital was clean and tidy. A large portion (83.6%) of the respondents was not satisfied with the drinking water facilities. Marital status and monthly income of the respondents showed a statistically significant (p<0.05) relationship with the happiness of care they received. This study showed that majority (70.75%) of the patients were satisfied with the services provided by the out Patient Department of Lalmonirhat 100 Bedded Hospital, Lalmonirhat and General Hospital, Kurigram, Bangladesh except availability of drinking water facilities.