Abstract:
Background: Outpatient Satisfaction can be defined as the extent of an individual’s experience compared with his or her expectations. It is the psychological state that results from confirmation or disconfirmation of expectations with reality.Client satisfaction with treatment process may be both influences and be influenced by treatment outcomes. Clients who are not satisfied with a service may have worse outcomes than others. Because, they miss more appointments, leave against advice or fail to follow on treatment plans This study aims to assess the level of out patient satisfaction and factors associated with it among clients in Adare General Hospital, Hawassa, southern Ethiopia, 2019
Methods: Institution based cross sectional study was conducted from February 20 to May 28. The sample size was 342 patients Patients whose age
18 years, visited the Hospital in the study period and selected by systematic random sampling was included in the study. Data were collected using pretested standard questionnaires Data entry and analysis was performed by using SPSS version 16 software. Descriptive statistics were employed to show the distribution of socio-demographic characteristics
Results: There were 342 clients enrolled in the study. Distance with a range of 1 to 4 hours. Out of the total 56. 4% were males, 30.7% 50 – 59 years old. 22.8% were illiterates and, 54.5%) were. Married, 37.2% unmarried and the rest divorced and widowed. Most of the clients, 68.4% were farmers.12.6% were merchant.10.3%)were governmental employee
79% of the clients came from the rural areas and, 83.2% were repeat visitors 81.3% came because of illnesses. 61.6 % were clients paid themselves and the rest clients 38.4% were non-paying themselves
Conclusions: Levels of patient satisfaction and experiences at Adare General Hospital were higher in rural than in urban areas. Many clients were found to be dissatisfied with the services of the outpatient departments of the Adare General Hospital. 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.