Assessment of Clients Satisfaction with Outpatient Services inTigray Zonall Hospitals

Most zonal hospitals in Tigray are among the oldest hospitals in the region, now serving for the huge population of the region that were originally established about 40 or more years ago for a much lesser population. Through time the significant increase in population growth has resulted in an extremely increased demand for health services, while the hospital capacity and facilities are not correspondingly changing. Different efforts are on process to fulfill the hospitals with the right manpower, medical equipment and other facilities to meet the needs of the clients. However the level of clients satisfaction is not known since no systematic study was carried out to assess the condition. A cross sectional study was conducted from November to April 2006. A combination of methods was used in collecting data for this study. These were both the quantitative and qualitative techniques. Three zonal hospitals were included in the study by simple random sampling technique. A total of 422 respondents were recruited for the study selected by systematic random sampling technique in the zonal hospitals. Structured questionnaire was used to collect the data in the zonal hospitals. In addition, FGDs with the clients and In depth interviews with the key personnel of the selected hospitals were also conducted to gather information. Epi6 and SPSS 10.0 statistical packages were used for data management. Among the clients, 52.6 % are male, 40.5% of the total clients are illiterates, 45.3% are from the rural areas and 33.6 % are non paying. The findings of the study showed that the client satisfaction level with the outpatient departments in the zonal hospitals was 43.6 %. Satisfaction was rated highest with courtesy and respect by the health workers with 93.8 % satisfaction rate. Dissatisfaction was rated highest by respondents with the lack of drugs and supplies in the hospitals pharmacies with 64.9% reporting dissatisfaction. Nearly half of the respondents (46.7 %) responded they were not satisfied with the information provision by the health workers about the services and their health problems. 96 % of the clients got a prescription for drugs and supplies. Of those with the prescription paper, only one third (32 %) got all the prescribed drugs and supplies. 44.2 % of the respondents were dissatisfied with the overall waiting time to get the hospital services. In conclusion, many clients were found to be dissatisfied with the services of the outpatient departments of the zonal hospitals. In addition the FGDs and In depth interviews showed that clients dissatisfaction was associated with the lack of drugs and supplies, long waiting time and inadequate information provision like that of the factors identified during the exit interview. Thus, the level of clients’ dissatisfaction is high. Therefore revising the allocation of budget for the hospitals to enable them keep the basic drugs and supplies and reassessment of the functions of the special pharmacies in the hospitals, Improving and strengthening the existing information provision to clients and developing a new hospital structure is recommended.