EXPLORING FACTORS AFFECTING QUALITY OF EMERGENCY DEPARTMENT SERVICES DELIVERY BASED ON CLIENT PERCEPTION: FINDING FROM A QUALITATIVE STUDY

Nowadays, patients’ satisfaction as the center of health care takers is one of the most important factors to evaluate the efficiency of a healthcare system. Due to the importance and vital role of emergency department services, this study was designed to explore the quality of health care delivery from clients’ points of view in Urmia Shahid Motahari Hospital. This is a qualitative approach using thematic content analysis method in which data collections were employed by means of face to face interview and observational field note during September 2011-October 2012. The selection of participants was based on purposeful and convenience sampling method among 17 clients in Shahid Motahari Hospital, Urmia, Iran. Thematic content analysis was employed to extract primary codes, categories, and sub-categories by the starting of the first interviews. The findings of this research showed that the most important factors influencing the quality of services were personnel’s behavior, the staff’s skills and their efficiency, long time of emergency process, the crowd in emergency department and guidance of emergency clients. Finding from this study indicated that in order to facilitate the quality of services, revising and correction of health care delivery processes, keeping continuous training of staffs in all fields, as well as public education campaign regarding the role of emergency department, and how it should be used are important needs.