Baseline patient satisfaction survey in 266 clinics located in three health districts of the Eastern Cape: Amathole, OR Tambo and Chris Hani

Background: The Eastern Cape Department of Health commissioned the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) to conduct Patient Satisfaction survey in order to assess patient perceptions, expectations and satisfaction with services.Aim: To conduct patient satisfaction survey in 275 clinics located in 3 health districts i.e. Amathole Health District (87), Chris Hani (108) and O.R. Tambo (80 clinics) using the DHIS client satisfaction survey module to monitor the satisfaction levels of the customers and also to identify quality issues for continuous quality improvement initiatives.Methods: A descriptive study was conducted involving a purposive sample of 19136 patients from 266 clinics based in Amathole, Chris Hani and OR Tambo District Municipalities. Data was collected by trained local fieldworkers using an adapted version of the Health System Trust (2004) Patient Satisfaction Survey questionnaire and a widely used and standardised 23-item EUROPEP instrument to tap information on the quality of primary care in the past 12 months (Grol & Wensing, 2000). Data was captured on Excel and exported to the DHIS and SPSS version 16 software and analysed.Summary of Results:Access to services: More than 30% of the respondents took longer than one hour to get to the clinic and paid >R10-00 to get to the clinic. More than 60% of the respondents agreed that: the clinic had convenient opening hours, they did not pay money to be treated, the nurse who treated them spoke in a language they could understand, the clinic was user friendly for disabled persons and that the nurse tried to get an appointment to suit them. More than 50% indicated that the health worker was neither accessible/did not speak to the health worker through the phone. Empathy: More than 60% of respondents agreed that: the nurse or doctor who treated them introduced him or herself, they were also able to answer all the questions they had regarding their illness, gave permission to be examined and treated, their priva