Patients’ satisfaction with the quality of health care services rendered at hospitals in the Frances Baard District

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the level of patients’ satisfaction with the quality of health-care services provided in hospitals that are in the Frances Baard Region (Northern Cape). The public health institutions have a public statement of patients’ rights displayed in their hallways. Patients have come to expect a certain level of service and ask questions when they feel that patient care quality is compromised by lower standards of health services as provided by the health professionals. In this study, simple random sampling was used to obtain participants for the study. Respondents were randomly chosen amongst the total number of patients who attended hospitals in the Frances Baard District. Questionnaires were used to collect data. Quantitative research as alluded to earlier on provides a general picture of a situation and produces results that are across contexts where the importance is on statistical information than individual perceptions. In a proposition to improve on national health care services by hospitals in the Frances Baard District, results of this research may therefore be applied to other health-care districts in Northern Cape, as well as the country as a whole with the overall aim of improving the quality of service offered to patients. Seventy five (75) questionnaires were handed out with a 100% response rate, and 71% of respondents were female and 29% were male. The following aspects were found to be directly linked to the satisfaction levels of patients and related findings of the study were as follows: 66% found waiting times fairly good whilst 34% found it poor. 93% of respondents were happy with privacy during consultation whilst the remaining 7% thought that the privacy was just fair. On evaluation of overall service received, 67% agreed that it was good value for money and would recommend services of that facility to family and friends whereas the remaining 33% disagreed.