Quality of Outpatient Visits in Selected Public and Private Clinics in Tabriz City in 2018

An outpatient visit is the start of the treatment process, the accuracy of which determines the outcome of patient treatment.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the quality of visits in selected public and private clinics in Tabriz.

This is a descriptive-analytic study conducted in the clinics of Imam Reza Hospital, Sheykh Al-Raees, and Shahid Taleghani Hospital (public sector) and the clinics of Behboud Hospital and Tabriz International Hospital (private sector) in 2018. The sample size was 384 patients. A standard quality questionnaire was used for data collection. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 22 software.

The mean values of structural quality in public and private clinics were 75.60% ± 18.90 and 50.26% ± 15.10, respectively. The mean value of process quality was 84.08% ± 6.70 in public clinics and 81.05% ± 8.77 in private clinics. Moreover, 77.45% ± 18.45 of patients in public clinics and 77.60% ± 16.76 of patients in private clinics were satisfied with the outcomes of visits. The overall quality of services was 79.04% ± 10.05 in public clinics and 69.64% ± 9.26 in private clinics.

The overall quality of services was at a moderate level. The average quality of visits was better in public clinics than in private ones. Officials can adopt measures to improve the service quality, such as infrastructure development in private clinics, the use of the Internet and telephone reception systems, time-based scheduling programs, and requiring physicians to attend the clinic regularly.