Patient satisfaction with quality of care in NHIS clinic in a federal tertiary hospital in southwest Nigeria

Abstract

Background: The National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) now named the National Health Insurance Authority
(NHIA) was launched to achieve easy access to affordable quality healthcare for all Nigerians. This study aimed at
evaluating patients' satisfaction with the services accessed at the NHIS clinic in a tertiary teaching hospital in
Southwest, Nigeria.
Methodology: This cross-sectional study carried out at the Federal Teaching Hospital, Ido-Ekiti, Nigeria included
all adult patients (> 18 years) who have been enrolled in the scheme for at least one year and have accessed
healthcare at the clinic within three months preceding the study. Data was collected from 391 patients using a
semi-structured interviewer-administered questionnaire in an exit interview. Data on patients’ satisfaction with the
quality of care was adapted from the Patient Satisfaction Questionnaire (PSQ 18). Data entry and analyses were
done with the SPSS version 26.0.
Results: The mean age (±SD) of the respondents was 43.5±14.5 years. More than half 204 (52.2%) of the patients
were male, 291 (74.4%) were married, and 319 (81.6%) had attained tertiary level education. The overall
satisfaction score was 75.02 ± 6.37, with communication (78.5 ± 11.6) and interpersonal manner (79.6 ± 10.0)
having the highest scores. Predictors of overall satisfaction were longer travel time (p < 0.001) and readiness to
return to the clinic for treatment (p = 0.001).
Conclusion: There was a high level of patient’s satisfaction with the quality of healthcare services rendered at the
NHIS clinic, with domains related to interpersonal and communication, ranked highest. Travel time and willingness
to return were factors significantly associated with patients’ satisfaction. There is a need for the management of
NHIS clinics to continuously improve the quality of healthcare services provided.