SHEMDOE, PAUL J.
Description:
Introduction: Patient satisfaction is a measure of extent to which a patient is content with the health care which they receive from health care providers, it is also the degree to which the individual regards the health care service or product or the manner in which it is delivered by the provider as useful, effective or beneficial.
Objective: To determine patient’s level of satisfaction with the health services at medical outpatient clinic of the Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Center
Methods: A cross-sectional study was used. And systematic sampling was used to select patients attending MOPD during the study period. A pre-tested SERVQUAL questionnaire was used also to collect data from the patients at the MOPD. Data entry and analysis was performed using SPSS version 20.
Results: The overall gap on health service provision specifically in Medical Outpatient Department at Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Center was (-20.8) which signifying overall dissatisfaction among patients in health service provision.
The level of dissatisfaction in the five service dimensions was as follows: The highest mean expectation score was recorded on Responsiveness (43.02) followed by Reliability (38.02). Lowest mean expectation score was recorded on Empathy (23.94). Responsiveness had the highest perception-expectation mean gap score (-8.08) followed by Reliability (-4.29) followed by Tangibles (-3.07) and assurance with mean gap score of (-2.93). Smallest mean gap score was in Empathy (-2.42)
Conclusion: The results of this study in general showed that, Patients’ were not satisfied with the health care provision at Medical Outpatient Department. There were negative gaps between patient’s perception and expectations in all of dimensions. So, to achieve the patients’ expectations, the quality of health care services needs to be improved through improving all the five SERVQUAL domains.