Patient Satisfaction with Services at Dental out Patient Department- Mulago Hospital, Uganda.

Abstract

Introduction: Patient satisfaction is crucial in the evaluation of the overall quality of dental healthcare, and is an important indicator in improving the quality of dental care. Patient satisfaction surveys are essential in obtaining a comprehensive understanding of the patient’s need and their opinion of the service received at the healthy facility. The outpatient clinics of hospitals are important points from which patient satisfaction can be evaluated regarding various factors which will determine how patients are satisfied with the care they receive. Objective: This study aimed to determine the level of patient satisfaction with services and associated factors at Dental outpatient department (OPD), Mulago hospital. Methods: A cross-sectional study design using a quantitative research approach was conducted. Data was collected by a structured Patient Satisfaction Questionnaire (PSQ III) using exit interviews from 206 patients aged 18-60 years who had received treatment at Dental outpatient department Mulago Hospital between 1st June and 30th June. Descriptive statistics were used for independent factors and to determine overall level of satisfaction, the associations between these factors were determined by using Chi-square test while Modified Poisson regression model was used to determine the association between these factors and overall patient satisfaction. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was used to rank health service delivery factors associated with satisfaction. xi Results: Of the 206 patients studied, 60.2% were generally satisfied with dental services at the dental OPD. After adjusting for all factors, age, marital status and occupation of the respondents were significantly associated with patient satisfaction. Among the health service delivery factors, patients were highly satisfied with the health providers’ technical competence followed by providers’ interpersonal relations, waiting time at the facility and least satisfied with physical environment. Conclusion: The study findings highlight that patients were highly satisfied with health provider’s technical competence and least satisfied with physical environment at dental OPD. There is need for the hospital administration to improve the physical environment at the dental OPD.