Patient satisfaction in primary care health services in Samsun city center

Abstract

Patient satisfaction is a function of expected benefits and performance from the service, appropriateness of the service to the socio-cultural values and the troubles these are the patient is escaped. A descriptive study was conducted to evaluate the patient satisfaction at 10 randomly selected primary care unit (PCU) in Samsun city center. Data, on socio-demographic characteristics and satisfaction level of 383 participants, were collected by a questionnaire applied face to face. Primary care units were the first applied health institution of 68.4% participants for any health problem and the nearness to the home (54.2%) was the most important factor for preference the PCU. Of the participants, 33.4% thought that the waiting time to see the doctor was not too long and 71.5% thought that the pay of the service was "cheap" or "normal". While the examination time was "enough" according to the 79.1% of the participants, 91.4 and 82.2% of them thought that the interest and behavior of the physician and the other health workers were "good-very good", respectively. The participants who expressed that they would apply to the PCU again, when they need, were the 97.1% of the all group. Despite the participants expressed that they were satisfied with the service in PCUs, in general, PCUs were the first application place for only 68.4% of them. So, it's thought that some arrangements should be done to increase the preferentiality of the PCUs, such as free service or enough examination time for each applicant.