The Impact of Demographic Characteristics on Patient's Satisfaction Level with Hospital Care Services In Selected Military Hospital's Clinics

Nowadays, the importance of patient’s satisfaction with health care services and its pivotal role in promoting the quality of services by health care provider centers is absolutely obvious. The present study aims at reviewing the satisfaction level of inpatients in selected military hospitals in Iran and its related factors. In the present cross-sectional descriptive study, which was conducted in six military hospitals located in the various geographical regions of Iran in the fourth quarter of 2008, six hundred patients were randomly selected from among people who admitted in these hospitals. Following the patients’ discharge, a checklist and a patient’s satisfaction questionnaire were completed for each patient. The questionnaire assesses the level of patient’s satisfaction in eight domains: physicians’ services, nursing services, nurses’ attitude, nutritional condition, welfare facilities, reception services, discharge and accounting services. Mean (Standard Deviation) of total satisfaction score was 83 (10). There was a significant difference among satisfaction scores of various hospital health services (p<0.001). In post hoc tests, the physician services score was significantly higher than that of nurses approach (p=0.004), the nutritional condition (p<0.001), the welfare facilities (p=0.001), the reception services (p=0.027), the discharge services (p<0.001) and the accounting services scores (p=0.019). Other subscales score had no significant differences (p>0.05). The total satisfaction score were significantly higher in males (p<0.001) and in patients with various insurance types than others (p<0.005). The present findings indicated inpatients’ desired satisfaction level with medical services in the military hospitals all over the country. The findings can be utilized for improvement of hospital health care services by principals and policy makers of health care systems.