Evaluation of patient satisfaction and the service quality of the outpatient care at the Heart Institute of Ho Chi Minh City

Abstract

Background and aims: This study assesses the levels and determinants of patient satisfaction with outpatient care at the Heart Institute of Ho Chi Minh City in 2018. Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive survey was carried among 401 randomly selected outpatients at the Heart Institute of Ho Chi Minh City from June to November 2018. The data were collected on pre-designed and pre-tested questionnaire that contained 32 items. The survey examined four main aspects of the service quality: “the accessibility of healthcare services”, “the transparency of information and procedures”, “the quality of the medical infrastructure and facilities”, “the behavior and professional competence of medical and service staff”. The survey asked the patients to evaluate the outcome of service delivery and satisfaction based on the 5 levels Linkert scale. Descriptive statistics, factor analysis and multiple linear regressions were performed to test the hypothesized relationships between service quality and patient satisfaction with the outpatient care. Results: Satisfaction of patients and relatives of patients about the quality of outpatient care was high, reaching the average 87.3 percent of patients’ expectation with the minimum of 50 to 100. 30% patients were not satisfied towards the booking appointments via phone, and online services. 35% patients were not happy with the long times waiting to get the registration, to see the doctors, to do the investigations and receive the results, and 54.1% respondents were not happy with toilet and drinking water facilities. Three dimensions of service quality significantly impacted the patient satisfaction and the outcome of service delivery: “the transparency of the information”, “the behavior and competence of medical staff and service staff”, and “the quality of the medical infrastructure and facilities”. The level of satisfaction was not statistically different among patient’s characteristics at p<0.05. Conclusions: Overall most of the patients positively evaluated the outpatient services at the Heart Institute of Ho Chi Minh City but there are still some aspects of healthcare services that need to improve such as the booking services, the toilet and drinking facilities, the long waiting times and more transparent information.