Beneficiary's Satisfaction with Primary Palliative Care Services in Kerala - A Cross-Sectional Survey

Kerala was the first state to implement a community-based, sustainable primary palliative care (PC) home care (HC) model. Beneficiary satisfaction, an important indicator to assess the quality of service provision with the HC program, has not been assessed since the programme was launched 14 years ago. This study tried to assess the satisfaction of beneficiaries receiving primary PC services through the Kerala State PC programme and the factors associated with the same.

The cross-sectional survey was conducted among 450 patients registered under the Kerala State Primary PC Programme. Data were collected using a semi-structured questionnaire from October 2022 to January 2023. We summarised the data as proportions and performed Chi-square tests to make comparisons wherever applicable.

Most of the beneficiaries (69.1%) were satisfied with HC services. The mean age of the beneficiaries was 65.51 ± 17 years. More than 80% of the participants (88.4%) were married, and the primary caregivers were wives (31.8%) and daughters/daughters-in-law (35.3%). The primary diagnosis of the beneficiaries was a cerebrovascular accident (27.4%), cancer (18.8%), and spinal cord injury (13.2%). The study examined the needs of beneficiaries and found that the top three requirements reported by the patients were the inclusion of doctor visits in HC (71.8%), medicine distribution at home (67.4%), and physical rehabilitation services at home with a minimum of three sessions per month (52.3%). The study found a statistically significant association (P < 0.05) between the Beneficiary's satisfaction and behaviour of PC nurses and certain services, including physiotherapy, procedural care specifically catheterisation and wound dressing, and health check-ups received through the HC program. Satisfaction was reported more in Thiruvananthapuram district, followed by Malappuram.

The overall satisfaction with the Kerala State Primary PC Programme was found to be high at about 69%. Despite the fact that the study identified significant relationships between nurses' behaviour, services provided (physical therapy, procedures, and health checks), and satisfaction, the findings suggested expanding the scope of the HC programme by including doctor visits and medicine delivery at patient's home.