Client Satisfaction among the clients attending tertiary care centers in Mangalore, South India

Background: Provision of services in line with the wishes and needs of patients is central to a human health care system .The hospital market has today as changed from a seller's market to a buyer's market and there is a need to improve the quality in the health care delivery. Client satisfaction is a key determinant of quality of care provided in health care centers.

Objectives: To determine the client satisfaction among the patients attending tertiary care centers in Mangalore.

Materials and Methodology: The study was a cross sectional study which was conducted among the clients attending five teaching hospitals in Mangalore. With 60% of client satisfaction obtained in our pilot study, the sample size was 384 and adding 20% for dropouts the total sample size came up to 462.The clients were selected randomly from each hospital. A pretested Proforma was used outside the hospital with strict confidentiality.

Results: In our study we found that,87.6% of the clients felt that the clinic hours at health facility were adequate,79.3% felt health care was easily accessible,89.2% were happy with hygiene and comfort of waiting area. Average waiting time was 116mins.Only 45.4% could meet the same service provider in follow up visit and only 51.5% availed similar services as in the first visit in the follow up. Satisfaction with provider's skill and ability was seen in 82.5% of the clients. Only 69.2% of the clients were satisfied with the cost of services available.

Conclusion: Our study revealed that waiting time was a major concern for the client's satisfaction.