Satisfying Patient's Rights according to Patient Bill of Rights in the Internal Medicine Departments of Ghaem & Imam Reza Hospitals, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran

This study was aimed to assess the rate of respecting patients’ rights according to Patient Bill of Rights among hospitalized patients in the internal departments of Ghaem & Imam Reza hospitals, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences.

This cross-sectional study was conducted on patients admitted to the internal medicine wards of Ghaem and Imam Reza hospitals of Mashhad. To collect data, a questionnaire consisted of demographic variables and variables related to patient bill of rights, filled out by the patients, was used. Data were analyzed using version 23 of SPSS software. Chi-square test was used to examine the relationship between qualitative variables with each of the patient rights charter axes. The significance level in this study was considered 0.05.

Overall, 80 patients with a mean age of 44.9 ± 12.97 years were enrolled in this study. Among patients, 53.8% were female, 85% were married, and 33.8% of them had a diploma degree. The highest satisfaction rate was observed in the axis of the right to choose and freely decide on receiving health care services (65.7%, 66.7% in Imam Reza and Ghaem hospitals, respectively); while the lowest was seen in the axis of handling patients’ complaints and reporting the outcomes (14.3%, 13.3% in Imam Reza and Ghaem hospitals, respectively). There was a significant relationship between place of residence and patient privacy; and educational level and handling patient complaints.

Satisfaction of compliance to patient bill of rights was acceptable in 4 axes and desirable only in one axis. One way of improving the satisfaction of patients to optimal levels is by educating both the medical staff and patients about the patient bill of rights. In addition, identifying the factors effective on patients’ satisfaction from the patient bill of rights could help improve the situation.