Using an Interactive Voice Response Survey to Assess Patient Satisfaction in Ethiopia: Development and Feasibility...

Patient satisfaction surveys can offer crucial information on the quality of care but are rarely conducted in low-income settings. In contrast with in-person exit interviews, phone-based interactive voice response (IVR) surveys may offer benefits including standardization, patient privacy, reduced social desirability bias, and cost and time efficiency. IVR surveys have rarely been tested in low-income settings, particularly for patient satisfaction surveys.

In this study, we tested the feasibility of using an IVR system to assess patient satisfaction with primary care services in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. We described the methodology, response rates, and survey costs and identified factors associated with survey participation, completion, and duration.

Patients were recruited in person from 18 public and private health facilities in Addis Ababa. Patients' sex, age, education, reasons for seeking care, and mobile phone numbers were collected. The survey included 15 questions that respondents answered using their phone keypad. We used a Heckman probit regression model to identify factors influencing the likelihood of IVR survey participation (picking up and answering at least 1 question) and completion (answering all survey questions) and a Weibull regression model to identify factors influencing the survey completion time.

A total of 3403 individuals were approached across 18 health facilities. Nearly all eligible patients approached (2985/3167, 94.3%) had a functioning mobile phone, and 89.9% (2415/2685) of those eligible agreed to be enrolled in the study. Overall, 92.6% (2236/2415) picked up the call, 65.6% (1584/2415) answered at least 1 survey question, and 42.9% (1037/2415) completed the full survey. The average survey completion time was 8.1 (SD 1.7) minutes for 15 Likert-scale questions. We found that those aged 40-49 years and those aged 50+ years were substantially less likely to participate in (odds ratio 0.63, 95% CI 0.53-0.74) and complete the IVR survey (odds ratio 0.77, 95% CI 0.65-0.90) compared to those aged 18-30 years. Higher education levels were also strongly associated with survey participation and completion. In adjusted models, those enrolled in private facilities were less likely to participate and complete the survey compared to those in public health centers. Being male, younger, speaking Amharic, using a private hospital, and being called after 8 PM were associated with a shorter survey duration. The average survey costs were US $7.90 per completed survey.

Our findings reveal that an IVR survey is a feasible, low-cost, and rapid solution to assess patient satisfaction in an urban context in Ethiopia. However, survey implementation must be carefully planned and tailored to local challenges. Governments and health facilities should consider IVR to routinely collect patient satisfaction data to inform quality improvement strategies.