A study of solicited commentaries on service delivery in a community cottage hospital

Abstract

Patient satisfaction is an important measure of the quality of health care. There is a paucity of qualityimprovement research in developing countries perhaps partly because of the complexity of many quality assessment methods. This work was designed to gauge patient satisfaction in a public-private-partnership Cottage Hospital in Nigeria, using solicited commentaries by users of the facility. Comments, complaints and suggestions by clients given via suggestion boxes, short message text and direct contacts with the Clients' Relations Office over a one year period were analyzed. The majority of the commentaries were complementary with 30.99 percent describing services as good, 11.27 each describing the nurses and doctors as friendly/good and obstetric care good. The uncomplimentary commentaries were mainly about the poor attitude of nurses (12.68%), and doctors (5.63%) and long waiting time (5.63%). The perception of the services of the hospital by clients is generally good. Investments of the private sector partner may have contributed to this perception. However, the problems of attitude of some key personnel, and long waiting times have to be addressed .Despite the limitations, collation and analysis of commentaries by clients may be a useful means of gauging quality of service, especially in situation of limited technical capacity.

Key words: Service Quality, Cottage Hospital, Clients' Comments.