Patient satisfaction with services at dental out patient department- mulago hospital, Uganda

Patient satisfaction is crucial in the evaluation of the overall quality of dental healthcare. Patient satisfaction surveys are essential in obtaining a comprehensive understanding of the patient's need and their opinion of the service received at the healthy facility. The purpose of the study was to determine the level of patient satisfaction with dental services and associated factors at Dental Outpatient department (OPD), Mulago hospital. A cross-sectional study using a quantitative approach was conducted using exit interviews from 206 patients aged 18-60 years. Patient satisfaction was measured as a composite categorical variable obtained by asking a number of questions using a 4 point Likert scale ranging from 1-strongly Disagree, 2- Disagree, 3- Agree, 4- Strongly Agree. It was presented as a Binary outcome as Satisfied and Not satisfied. Descriptive statistics, Chi-square tests, Modified Poisson regression and Principal Component Analysis (PCA) were used during data analysis. Overall, 60.2% of the respondents were satisfied with dental services. Females were 126 (61.17%) while males 80 (38.83%). Secondary level education was 89 (43.20%) while no level of education was 11 (5.34%). Self-employed respondents were 75 (36.41%) while peasant farmers were 14 (6.80%). Age, marital status and occupation were significantly associated with patient satisfaction. PCA results show that patients were highly satisfied with the health providers' technical competence and least satisfied with physical environment. In conclusion, patient satisfaction was suboptimal at 60.2%. There is need for the hospital administration to improve the physical environment at the dental OPD.