Outpatients’ Satisfaction with the Provision of Physiotherapy Services

Abstract

Background: Patient satisfaction is one of the indicators of the quality of care received by patients, which can be used as a benchmark to ensure quality of physiotherapy services. However, there is a dearth of data in Nigeria. Objectives: The current study aimed at examining the level of patients’ satisfaction with the physiotherapy services in Maiduguri, Nigeria. Methods: The current cross sectional study was conducted on a total of 300 participants (158 males and 142 females) randomly recruited from the physiotherapy outpatient unit of three hospitals. The physical therapy satisfaction questionnaire was administered to assess the participants’ level of satisfaction with the rendered physiotherapy services. Results: The overall patient satisfaction score was 82.95 ± 14.71. Privacy was the highest satisfactory subscale reported by the participants (83.50 ± 11.21), while facility locations/proximity (68.51 ± 13.20) and bills/cost (70.24 ± 19.40) were the least satisfactory subscales among the others. The result shows that female and old adult participants were significantly more satisfied with the received physiotherapy services compared with the male and young adult participants (P = 0.03 and 0.001, respectively). However, participants did not differ significantly in the level of satisfaction with provided physiotherapy services in terms of their conditions/ailments (P = 0.056). Conclusions: Overall, patient satisfaction with physiotherapy services in the current study was high. Females, older adults, as well as employed participants were more satisfied. Also, higher satisfaction was observed among participants with primary school education and the ones receiving multiple treatment modalities.