Patient satisfaction with surgical informed consent at Jimma Medical Center, Ethiopia

Informed consent is a process in which a healthcare provider obtains permission from an individual prior to surgery. Patient satisfaction with the informed consent process is one of the main indicators of healthcare service quality. This study aimed to assess patient satisfaction with surgical informed consent at Jimma Medical Center, Ethiopia, in 2020.

A facility-based cross-sectional study was conducted from April 1 to June 30, 2020, at Jimma Medical Center. Face-to-face interviews were conducted using structured questionnaires. A systematic sampling technique was used to select the study participants. The collected data were coded, entered into Epi data version 3.1, and analyzed using SPSS version 25. Bivariate and multivariate regression analyses were performed to determine the association between patient satisfaction and socio-demographic and facility-related factors. In multivariate regression, predictors with a P-value of < 0.05 were considered statistically significant.

Totally 372 study participants were interviewed with a response rate of 97.8%. Nearly two-fifths (43%) of patients were satisfied with surgical informed consent. Living in an urban area (AOR: 2.279, 95% CI 1.257-4.131), having current referred history (AOR: 1.856, 95% CI 1.033-3.337), consent form version (AOR: 2.076, 95% CI 1.143-3.773), time spent on the provision of informed consent (AOR: 5.227, 95% CI 2.499-10.936) and having better patient-health providers relationship (AOR: 5.419, 95% CI 3.103-9.464) predictors were positively associated with patient satisfaction.

Patient satisfaction with the surgical informed consent process was relatively low. Therefore, Health care professionals need to emphasize a way of delivering informed consent, patients' needs and obey a standard informed consent to improve patient satisfaction.