Patient satisfaction in government health facilities in the state of Qatar

There is an increasing interest in assessing patients' satisfaction with medical care in the United States and other countries. Patient satisfaction studies have, however, received comparatively little attention in public or government-sponsored settings, and in developing countries in particular. The research reported upon here is based on a mail, self-administered survey of patients receiving care in two major government outpatient health care facilities-Hamad General Hospital and the Khalifa Town Health Center-in the State of Qatar, for the purpose of providing data to improve service delivery and the quality of primary care provided in that country. Analysis was performed on data from 444 patients on seven dimensions of patient satisfaction with medical care: general satisfaction, availability of services, convenience of services, facilities (physical environment), humaneness of doctors, quality of care, and continuity of care. The study pointed to a number of deficiencies in the availability and delivery of services in government health facilities in the State of Qatar. It also surfaced methodological issues that should be addressed in comparable studies of culturally diverse populations.