PATIENTS’ PERCEPTIONS OF QUALITY OF HEALTH CARE IN OUT PATIENT DEPARTMENT OF A TERTIARY CARE CARDIAC FACILTIY

Abstract

Objective: To assess the patients’ perception of quality of health care in out-patient department of a tertiary care cardiac hospital.

Study Design: Cross sectional study.

Place and Duration of Study: Armed Forces Institute of Cardiology Rawalpindi, from Jul to Dec 2016.

Material and Methods: Data was collected by conducting hospital based exit interviews on 300 patients using convenience sampling. A standardized, reliable and valid questionnaire was extracted from literature for this purpose.

Results: Statistical analysis showed that nearly more than half (57%) of the patients had high perception of quality of care. Statistically significant association was found between education of the respondents and level of perception (p-value=0.005) as well as between occupation and level of perception (p-value=0.017).

Conclusion: In conclusion almost half the patients had high perception scores and half had low perception score. Furthermore the category of low perception score was mainly due to hospital infrastructure, medical information conveyed to the patients and doctor’s behavior. Efforts should be made to address the shortcomings so as to improve quality of care and users perceptions.