Outpatient and inpatient services satisfaction in Iranian military hospitals

Many diagnostic and treatment procedures are done in hospitals and clinics. Offering services in these areas have a prominent role in promoting patients' satisfaction levels and their prospective about health services.

This study is going to assess the satisfaction levels of patients referring to the six military hospital clinics in Iran.

In this cross-sectional study, 330 outpatients and 696 inpatients admitted to the six military hospital clinics in Iran were randomly questionnaires from June to August 2008. Basic socio-demographic data along with a clinic satisfaction level assessment questionnaire were filled for outpatients. A hospital satisfaction level assessment questionnaire also was applied to record inpatients' data. All collected data were recorded and then analyzed tests X2 and ANOVAs was used and with significantly lower levels of 5% (P < 0.005).

We found that 96% of the study population was satisfied with clinic services and more than 98% of the respondents were satisfied with inpatient ward services. In clinic services, the satisfaction level in numbering and waiting time, access to the clinic, physical environment, welfare and helping facilities, and personnel and physicians' behavior were 78.2%, 80.6%, 89.1%, 91.2% and 93.6% respectively (P < 0.001). With regard to inpatient services, the satisfaction level of patients with physician services, nursing routine services, behavior of nurses, nutritional condition, welfare facilities, reception unit services, discharge unit services and accounting unit services were 94.7%, 91.9%, 91.9%, 91.5%, 91.5%, 91.2%, 90.8% and 88.2%, respectively (P = 0.013).

On the basis of the findings, most respondents reported having a favorable satisfaction with clinic and hospital health services. However, planning to reduce patient's waiting time in clinics and training physicians to offer more instructions to the patients seems necessary. Since discharge and accounting unit services had the lowest satisfaction levels of inpatients services, responsible managers must have special attention to these official processes.