Journal of Primary Health Care and

General Practice
Research Article

Assessment of Patient Satisfaction Using OPD Service at the Out

Patients Department - Case Study - at Teaching Hospital Karapitiya
Sri Lanka
This article was published in the following Scient Open Access Journal:
Journal of Primary Health Care and General Practice
Received March 24, 2017; Accepted June 18, 2017; Published June 26, 2017

Lanka Sanjeewa GGC * and Senevirathne R

1 2
Abstract
Regional Director of Health Service, Hambantota,
1

Sri Lanka Background: For the purpose of determining the relationship between satisfaction level
2
Department of Surgery Family Medicine, Galle, Sri and explanation factor, a cross-sectional survey on patient satisfaction of health services
Lanka was conducted at Kalapitiya outpatient department department. In this study, suggestions
and comments from patients were also clarified.
Methodology: Data were obtained from 251 patients using OPD services using
structured questionnaire. Descriptive statistics were used to describe satisfaction and
independent variables, and the relationship between these factors was determined by chi-
square test.
Results: The mean score of patient satisfaction was 3.5, and 10.4% of patients were
very satisfied with the medical service. The patient was very satisfied with courtesy (45.8%),
quality of care (44.2%), physical environment (41.8%), convenience (24.7%), pocket cost
(23.5 Most patients are concerned about the waiting time for doctor’s service and the
counter service is delayed because there is not enough staff.
Conclusion and Recommendation: A strategy emphasizing to improve the image of
the hospital should be implemented on a continuous basis while the patient’s attitude can
change with good hospital reputation. By conducting a patient satisfaction survey in each
unit, you can obtain an actual figure of further strategy.
Keywords: Patient satisfaction, Outpatient department, Health services

*Corresponding Author: Chamal Sanjeewa,
Regional director of Health Service, Hambantota,
Sri Lanka,Tel: 077 2 3737 66, Email:
chamalsanjeewa@gmail.com
Introduction
In most countries, measuring patient satisfaction is an integral part of the hospital
management strategy for quality assurance and accreditation processes in most
countries [1]. Without sufficient data, understanding the strengths of the organization,
measuring patient satisfaction, evaluating the process of care, describing the patient’s
perspective, comparing the facility to the system by comparing the patient’s perspective
to the system, It is a method to evaluate care
Every year Sri Lanka spends considerable income for health and education. The
productivity of free health care and free education is clearly indicated by improvement
of the above indicators [2-5]. Sri Lanka recognized the importance of the government’s
role and health expenditure considerably early. Between 1950s and 1960s, reasonably
good economic conditions promoted government expenditure on health, education,
housing, food [2-8].
Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Health in 2006, together with the rapidly aging of epidemiology
and demographic changes that brought the double burden of classical diseases together
with the aging of the population, provides a more innovative form of medical care and
emergency of health Care delivery and health care finance emphasizing necessity. In fact,
the cost of providing healthcare is rapidly increasing rapidly, and the government faces
the constraint of maintaining the principle of high quality public sector health at the point
of delivery. However, this provision, which is an irresponsible promise of the government,
will not be compromised at any cost. This means that we need to introduce an innovative
scheme for healthcare financing, including wise use of public-private partnership, while
always maintaining the principle that there is no direct usage fee to do.

Volume 1 • Issue 2 • 008 www.scientonline.org J Primary Health Care Gen Practice

Citation: Sanjeewa GGC, Senevirathne R (2017).. Assessment of Patient Satisfaction Using OPD Service at the Out Patients Department - Case
Study - at Teaching Hospital Karapitiya Sri Lanka.
Page 2 of 8

Government spent about 7% of GDP on these sectors; health
alone received 2.5% of GDP. Higher spending on health enabled
expansion on health care facilities the expansion and improvement
of health care infrastructure was largely responsible for the
decline in mortality and improved health status.
The transitions in the epidemiology and demography, which
have resulted in the classical double burden of diseases, combined
with a rapidly ageing population have impelled the urgent need
for more innovative forms of health care delivery and health
care delivery and health care financing [2-8]. In fact the costs of
health care delivery are rapidly increasing at such a rapid pace
that quite often the government faces constraints to maintain its
cherished principle of high quality public sector health free at
the point of delivery. However this provision being an unbending
commitment of the government will not be compromised at
any cost. This means that we will need to introduce innovative
schemes of financing our health care, including a judicious use
of public - private partnerships, while continuing to maintain the
principle of an absence of direct user fees all the time [8-12].
The primary goal of the tertiary care hospital as a highest
level of health care provision is to provide best possible health
care to the patients. The modern era where it is the right of every
patient to demand best possible care in Government hospitals,
it is the duty of every staff member of the hospital to deliver
his optimum efforts to the entire satisfaction of the patient. Its
assessment will give us an opportunity to find loopholes in our
services and future ratification.
There are several causes affecting the patients’ decision in
attending either sector. Some of them are,
1. Affordability
2. Differences in customer care and customer satisfaction in
either sector
3. Differences in facilities available in either sector
4. Availability of insurance policies
5. Differences in the level of training and qualifications of
the staff members.
Patient satisfaction depends upon many factors such as:
quality of clinical services provided, availability of medicine,
behavior of doctors and other health staff, cost of the services,
hospital infrastructure, physical comfort, emotional support and
respect for patient preferences. For health care organization to
be successful monitoring of customer’s perception is a simple but
important strategy to assess and improve their performance [3].
Research Objectives
General objectives
To assess the level of satisfaction of patients who have utilized
the OPD services at the Teaching hospital Karapitiya. And to
identify the factors related to patients satisfaction (Table 1 and
Figure 1).
Specific objectives
1. To assess the level of satisfaction with the services
provided by the OPD.
2. To determine the relation between the level of socio
demographic factors, and satisfaction.
3. To identify the relationship between the patient attitude
and the level of satisfaction.
4. To find out the relationship between the enabling factors
and satisfaction level.
5. To determine the relationship between the need factors
towards the services and the satisfaction level.
6. To describe the patients opinions and suggestion on
improving the services in the outpatient department.
Methodology
This was a cross-sectional study. Teaching Hospital Karapitita
is a survey site and their OPD service is the main focus of
focus. Teaching Hospital Karapitiya is a major tertiary medical
hospital in the south and about 200 to 350 people are treated
daily. Patients between the ages of 16 and 65 years old who are
receiving treatment for the 2 week test period there should be a
Sun that is necessary for this examination was 228. Considering
10% of the defect, 251 samples were needed for this test.
In order to obtain information on the OPD unit made in this
study, we applied the layer-specific implementation and drawn
it. In this type of packaging technology, researchers selected
a sufficient number of subjects from each unit (layer), using
real representation randomization in the relevant layer and its
population.

Total no. of Average no. of Estimate no. of Proportionate Average no. of

UNITS
tokens/day/unit consultation/ day/ unit consultation (10 days) size/ unit patient/day/unit
medicine 180 68 680 36 4
General Surgery 75 57 570 30 3
Diabetic clinic 132 39 390 21 3
Ear-Nose-Throat 75 75 750 3 4
Dermatology 90 70 700 37 4
Ophthalmology 70 40 400 21 3
Orthopedics 102 71 710 37 4
Urology 50 49 490 26 3
Neurology 20 6 60 3 1
Plastic surgery 10 2 20 1 1
TOTAL 804 477 4230 251
Table 1: Total number of patients per day in each unit (10 days planned for data collection).

Volume 1 • Issue 2 • 008 www.scientonline.org J Primary Health Care Gen Practice

Citation: Sanjeewa GGC, Senevirathne R (2017).. Assessment of Patient Satisfaction Using OPD Service at the Out Patients Department - Case
Study - at Teaching Hospital Karapitiya Sri Lanka.
Page 3 of 8

Independent variable Dependent variable

Predisposing factors Patient satisfaction at OPD
-Age Convenience
-Gender Courtesy
Out of pocket
Expenditure
Quality of care
Socio demographic factors Physical Environment
-Marital
-Occupation
-Education
-Number of visit

Health Belief
Attitude

Enabling Factors
Family income
Type of Payments

Need factors
Health problems Expectations Source; Author

Figure 1. Conceptual framework

The population was stratified into 10 units of service. Next,
we selected a sufficient number from each layer using random
sign-in, and decided the number of samples of real number one
day ago. A large case was applied to display patients from each
unit (Table 2).
The research equipment planned for this research was a
questionnaire managed by the interviewer. Data collection was
carried out with the help of three trained interviewers. We
gathered data when patient was waiting for consultation at OPD.
After the collection was completed, it was entered using the Epi
Data program. The procedure is as follows.
 - Each item encodes coding consistency in all questionnaire
forms and checks it.
 - Enter data, and
 - Check the consistency of data of all variables and edit them.
Frequency and percentages were calculated for predisposing
factors (gender, age, marital status, educational achievement,
occupation and attitude) to analyze factors (family income

Volume 1 • Issue 2 • 008 www.scientonline.org J Primary Health Care Gen Practice

Citation: Sanjeewa GGC, Senevirathne R (2017).. Assessment of Patient Satisfaction Using OPD Service at the Out Patients Department - Case
Study - at Teaching Hospital Karapitiya Sri Lanka.
Page 4 of 8

Socio-demographic factors Frequency (N=251) Percent (%) Age In years 16 – 65 years

Gender
Sex Female, male
Female 174 69.3
Male 77 30.7 Education No education
Age Primary school
16-32 133 52.9
33-49 69 27.3
Secondary school
50-66 49 19.5 Higher secondary school
Median=31.0 QD=7.7 Max=65.0 Min=16.0
Higher education (diploma and
Marital status
bachelors)
Single 65 25.9
Married 170 67.7 Others.
Divorced/separated 7 2.8
Occupation Civil servants
Widowed 9 3.6
Socio-demographic factors Frequency (N=251) Percent (%) Private sectors
No education 29 11.6 Self-employed
Primary school 91 36.3
Secondary school 75 29.9
Unemployed
Higher secondary school 38 15.1 Student
Higher education 11 4.4
Others( fishing and agriculture)
Others 7 2.8
Occupation
Civil servants 73 29.1
Family income 1000 – 17,333RS Low
Private sector 27 10.8
Self-employed 27 10.8 17,334 – 33,667RS
Unemployed 82 32.7 Moderate
Student 27 10.8
33.668 – 50,001RS High
Others 15 6.0
Average monthly income
(Rs)
Class interval (CI) = Max.Score-Min.
Rs 1000 – 15000 200 79.7
Score
Rs 15001 - 35000 43 17.1
Rs 35001 – 50001 8 3.2 level of income
Total 251 100.0
Median= 8000 Max= Min= 1000
50,000 QD= 16,333 <minimum + CI :Low income
Table 2. Socio-demographic and economic characteristics of the patients. (min +CI) to (min + CI +CI )
and payment type) and required factors (health problems and :Moderate income
expectations). >minimum + CI +CI :High income
For the level of patient satisfaction in each class of age,
Results
education, occupation, marital status, income, health insurance,
health problem, the median, the maximum value and the As a result, most patients were female (69.3%), only male
minimum value of the mean, standard deviation were calculated (30.7%), the youngest patient was 16 years old, and the oldest one
for the quantitative data. was 65 years. The median score was 31.00 years and the quartile
deviation was 7.7. Most patients were married (67.7%) but a
For patient satisfaction, attitudes and expectations, the quarter (25.90%), divorce / divorce was 2.8%, widows 3.59%.
quartile deviation, maximum and minimum values were The second institution (29.9%) was at the secondary education
calculated after the data size was evaluated. We conducted a chi- level. 22.3% received higher education, and only 11.6% did not
square test to determine the relationship between satisfaction receive school education.
and age, sex, marital status, education, occupation, income,
expectation, attitude, health insurance and patient’s health In relation to occupation, most patients were unemployed
(32.7%), second was civil servants (29.1%). Other groups were
problems. The significance level was set to 0.05.
agriculture and fishery. Regarding average family income per
Operationalisation month in Rupiah, the lowest income was 1000 rupees. The
maximum amount earned was 50,000 rupees. The median of
Measurement and classification of variables. family income was 8000 and the quartile deviation was 16333.
Variables Measurement and classification 79.7% for low-income people, 17.1% for moderate and 3.2% for
high-income people.

Volume 1 • Issue 2 • 008 www.scientonline.org J Primary Health Care Gen Practice

Citation: Sanjeewa GGC, Senevirathne R (2017).. Assessment of Patient Satisfaction Using OPD Service at the Out Patients Department - Case
Study - at Teaching Hospital Karapitiya Sri Lanka.
Page 5 of 8

Percentile or quartile was used as acute-off point to divide Attitude level Frequency Percent (%)
attitude into three groups. The total score of attitude was equal Good attitude (>23.0) 52 20.7
to 30. More than Half 59.0% of the patients’ had fair attitude Fair attitude (18-23.0) 148 59.0
towards hospital while the good and poor attitude were almost Poor attitude (<17.99) 51 20.3
the same, 20.7% and 20.3% respectively. Total 251 100.0
The patient was asked about expectations for the provided Median=21.00 QD= 1.67 Max= 30 Min= 6
health services. There were five questions in this section, Table 3. Overall attitudes of the patients towards health services.
including service cost, quality of service, waiting time, physical
environment and information exchange. For data that expects Variables Measurement and classification
overall (P value <0.05), high, moderate low expectation value, Health problem Medical problems
total score of each respondent is added, and the average score ENT/ Eye problems
of each respondent is calculated. I used a percentile as a cutoff Skin problems
point. Accepted patients who accept financial support by the Gastro Intestinal problem
government and insurance system and answered five questions. Surgical problem
With general expectations for hospitals, 20.7% of patients had a Urinary Tract Infection problem
high expectation for service and had a reasonable expectation of Plastic surgery
58.2% patients. Orthopedic problem
The patient was most satisfied with good ventilation in the Neurology problem
hospital (15.1%). Convenient parts had five questions about Diabetic problems
the problems of cleanness and service system, availability of Type of payment Private scheme
equipment, cooling placement, availability of doctors and nurses, Government scheme
clinical assistance for consultation. Frequency and percentage Insurance scheme
were as shown in Table 6. For convenience, most patients were Others
not satisfied with 75.3%. Expectation High expectation :(>Q3)

In the courtesy part, there were four questions about the
kindness of attention, attention, and appropriate time for
consultation and privacy maintenance while examining the
patient of doctors and nurses. Patient satisfaction was 45.8% and
54.2% respectively. The quality of nursing care patients was asked
about the doctor’s abilities, the examination of instruments, and
how the pharmacist dispenses medicine. The results showed that
44.2% of patients were very satisfied and 55.8% of patients were
not satisfied with the quality of care provided.
The two questions were asked about being financially
protected against pocket cost, affordable, medical problems
for medical expenses. Every patient was not satisfied (76.5%),
23.51% was satisfied with the price of pocket spent on medical
service. The last part of satisfaction was asked about the physical
environment. It was clean and neat, adequate sitting chair,
available in waiting room, availability of drinking water and clean
toilet, clear finger and direction, ventilation. The overall score
is very satisfying with 41.8% of patients, 58.2% suggesting low
value of environmental satisfaction. Median, quarter deviation,
maximum and minimum scores were calculated after summing
the total score of 20 questions. A satisfaction level of 80% or
more is considered to be a high satisfaction degree, and 79 or less
is considered a low satisfaction degree. group in age range was 33-49 years and 7.3% of patients were
Overall satisfaction with health services of THK hospital. The
results showed that three quarter of the patient were having low
(89.7%) satisfaction and only 10.4% were highly satisfied with
services (Table 3).
In age group 16 - 32 years. All age groups showed high
percentage of low level of satisfaction. In age group 16 - 32 years,
88% of the patients had low satisfaction, age group 33-49 years
were 93% and age group 50-66 years were 90%.
All the group were, it was regrouped into four groups; no
education, primary education, secondary education and higher
Medium expectation :(Q1 – Q3)
Low expectation :(<Q1)
Attitude Good attitude :(>Q3)
Fair attitude :(Q1 – Q3)
Poor attitude :(<Q1)
Satisfaction High satisfaction :(>80% of total score)
Low satisfaction :(≤ 80% of total score)
Table 4: Measurement and classification of variables.
secondary school / higher education / others. The patients with
various level education had almost same level of satisfaction.
Having low satisfaction. The patients with secondary level of
education had higher percentage of high satisfaction (14.7%)
compared to other groups (Table 4).
High percentage of high satisfaction was found in unemployed
/ others. I have regency the occupation of the patients, it was
regrouped for analysis. Self-employed / others and unemployed
/ s. Group.
Discussion
The younger age group had range of 16-32 years. In this
group, 12.0% of patients had high level of satisfaction. Second
highly satisfied. The eldest group 50-66 years, 10.2% patients
were highly satisfied. Perhaps the most consistent determinant
characteristic was patient age, with a body of evidence from
various countries to suggest that older people tend to be more
satisfied with health care than do younger people. According
to Williams and Calnan (1991) older people have found to be
far more satisfied with most aspects of their hospital care than
younger or middle aged people Most studies on satisfaction have
found that older patients report higher levels of satisfaction
than younger patients, which were contrast with this study. In
certainty older patients tend to be more dependent to the other

Volume 1 • Issue 2 • 008 www.scientonline.org J Primary Health Care Gen Practice

Citation: Sanjeewa GGC, Senevirathne R (2017).. Assessment of Patient Satisfaction Using OPD Service at the Out Patients Department - Case
Study - at Teaching Hospital Karapitiya Sri Lanka.
member of the family and younger take initiative to improve the
services.
According to the patient education, the secondary school
group were highly (14.7%) satisfied with services of THK hospital.
The least percent found in no education groups, only 3.5% with
high satisfaction. In most of the surveys higher educated patients
tend to be less satisfied with the services and low educated
patients would be more satisfied with services [9-15] (Table 5).
Respondents having Health problems with ENT and Eye
were highly satisfied (13.79%) with services when compared
with respondents having other health problems in this study.
The ENT and Eye department may provide more concern to
health problems of patients than other departments. However,
there was no significant association between health problem
and satisfaction level. This relationship has been investigated
by researchers, some of whom have reported that there is no
significant association between patients’ perceived health
status and their satisfaction with health care In contrast, other
researchers reported that patients who perceive their health
status to be poor were less satisfied with their medical care
Although healthier patients were generally more satisfied with
their care than less healthy patients, there lack of clarity on
the relationship between health status and the component of
satisfaction. When considered these relationships would assist
in making more rational quality improvement strategies, thereby
contributing to the increased effectiveness of health care.
In this study, the results of overall expectation showed
that 15.4% of high expectation group had high satisfaction
and only 1.9% of low expectation group had high satisfaction.
The association between expectation and satisfaction was not
significantly associated. It can be concluded that patients got
higher expectation when they were satisfied with health services.
The roles of consumers assume regarding their relationship to
the health care system has significant meaning for understanding
satisfaction. One of the central tenets of the prevailing model of
satisfaction was that patients judge themselves to be satisfied
when care has met their expectation. However, there was
evidence from several studies that patient’s expectations only
have indirect effect on their level of satisfaction, and that patients
are satisfied even their expectations have not been met (Table 6).
Expectation Frequency Percent (%)
High expectation (>2.61) 52 20.7
Moderate expectation (2.2-2.6) 146 58.2
Low expectation (<2.19) 53 21.1
Total 251 100.0
Median=2.50 QD= 0.2 Max= 3.00 Min= 1.25
Table 5: Overall expectation of patients towards health services.
Level of satisfaction
Variables
High N (%) low N (%)
Convenience 62(24.7) 198(75.3)
Courtesy 115(45.8) 136(54.2)
Quality of care 111(44.22) 140(55.8)
Out of pocket cost 59(23.5) 192(76.5)
Physical environment 105(41.8) 146(58.2)
Table 6: Numbers and percentage of patients by overall satisfaction for each
component.
Volume 1 • Issue 2 • 008 www.scientonline.org
Page 6 of 8
Among 251 patient 72.9% of the patient provided comments
and suggestions to improve the quality of health services. Most of
the patient gave more than three suggestions to improve. Quality
of care was very important indicator in any health sector. Poor
quality was costly; it leads to loss of lives, loss of time, and loss of
public confidence, low staff morale and also results in wastage of
our limited resources. This tends to provides plenty of comments
and suggestions to improve the services.
Most of the patient commented on Waiting time (24.0%),
from the point of entry to exit in a hospital, the patient has to
wait at various stages i.e. enquiry/ registration counter, doctors
chamber, laboratory and pharmacy etc. A study conducted in a
tertiary care hospital in India also revealed that 25% patients,
waiting time for consultation seems to be extends to more than
three hours.
Delay in counter services 11.5% patient commented. Next
patient commented on difficulty in getting appointment (9.9%)
and takes time to get pharmacy services. They recommend
providing easy access to appointment and pharmacy services.
These two areas seems to be related to each other, if difficulty in
getting appointment is a problem and if the waiting time gets too
long for consultation will leads to dissatisfaction with services.
The waiting time was too long seemed to prove the level of
expectation for waiting time was the poor (64.5%) among other
respondents.
According to patient’s suggestions and comments the third
priority was to increase the number of specialists (9.4%). The next
point was about the counter services were being delayed due to
various reasons; less staffs, less counters and less qualified staffs
to provide services. The next very important service to improve
in this hospital was to improve toilet facilities along with hand
wash solution. Furthermore they commented on punctuality of
most doctors were low and communication gap were there in
some doctors and medical staffs (6.8%). Lee 2004 mentioned
that if patient has a poor ability to assess technical performance.
And they have difficulty distinguishing between the art of care
and the technical aspects of care. As a result, patients judge the
hospital by the way they’re treated as a person, rather than the
way they’re treated for their disease. Adequate information and
the ability to communicate caring create confidence.
The comment about clinical assistance communication
skills were rude or impersonal way. Patient gives suggestion to
improve their skills to except patient as a patient. According to
Taylor (2004) “Doctors’ training and knowledge of new medical
treatments are less important to many patients than their
interpersonal skills-treating patients with respect, listening
carefully, being easy to talk to, taking patients’ concerns seriously,
spending enough time with them, and really caring.” Of the three
top drivers of patient satisfaction, two (nurses anticipated your
needs, and staff responded with care and compassion) measure
the staff’s ability to show empathy.
The most another important point that patient suggests was
to arrange a fully free medical services or insurance scheme in
a near future. And also the costs of some services were too high
like laboratory investigation and some advanced procedures.
Some patient suggests to minimize the cost to level that patient
can afford [20-22].
J Primary Health Care Gen Practice
Citation: Sanjeewa GGC, Senevirathne R (2017).. Assessment of Patient Satisfaction Using OPD Service at the Out Patients Department - Case
Study - at Teaching Hospital Karapitiya Sri Lanka.
Page 7 of 8

Conclusion Variables Frequency (N=251) Percent (%)

High satisfaction (>80) 26 10.4
Patients going to each hospital are responsible for
Low satisfaction (≤ 80 ) 225 89.7
spreading the good image of the hospital, and the satisfaction of
Total 251 100.0
patients going to the hospital is equally important for hospital
Median=71.00 QD= 32.5 Max= 91.0 Min= 26.0
management. The customer image of the hospital still wanted the
quality of service that was appropriate nationwide. [5,17-20]. Table 7: Overall satisfactions towards health services at OPD.

In this study, dependent variables were patient satisfaction Level of Statically level
Level of satisfaction χ2 P-value
with hospital services considered depending on care components, Attitude of significant
such as convenience, courtesy, care quality, pocket cost and Gender
physical environment. Independent variables are included. Female 20(11.5) 154(88.5) 0.79 0.38 P > 0.05
Including gender, marital status, educational level, occupation, Male 6(7.8) 71(92.2)
number of visits, attitudes towards service, etc. Elements Age (Yrs)
that make this possible included family revenues and types of 16-32 16(12.0) 117(88.0) 1.121 0.571 P > 0.05
payments for this visit. And the necessary elements were health 33-49 5(7.3) 64(92.8)
problems and expectations for service [8-14]. 50-66 5(10.2) 44(89.8)
Taking this into consideration, the overall satisfaction score Marital status
of all patients’ satisfaction levels was 10.4% higher, 89.6% which Single 5(7.7) 60(92.3) 0.982 0.612 P > 0.05
was rarely satisfied with the services of THK Hospital. A low Married 19(11.2) 151(88.8)
percentage of high level of satisfaction may be attributed to high Divorced/sepa-
2(12.5) 14(87.5)
criteria of satisfaction classification (80% of total score) among rated +widowed
other reasons. With regard to the elements of satisfaction, we Education
found that overall patients excluding courtesy and quality of care No education 1(3.5) 28(96.6) 3.653 0.301 P > 0.05
were less satisfied with the service. Primary school 10(11.0) 81(89.0)
Secondary
In terms of expectation, it was not much related to satisfaction. 11(14.7) 64(85.3)
school
Patients with high expectations were as high as 15.4%, moderate HSC/HE/others 4(7.1) 52(92.9)
expectations with high satisfaction were 11.6% of patients, low Occupation
expectations were 1.9% with high satisfaction. According to these Civil Servants /
9(9.0) 91(91.0) 0.519 0.771 P > 0.05
results, most patients had low satisfaction with hospitals and low Private
expectations. Among Socio’s demographic factors, there was no Self-employed/
4(9.5) 38(90.5)
significant association in patient satisfaction. Others
Average monthly
Respondents’ comments and suggestions were related income (Rs)
to convenience and were more negative than positive. The 1000 - 15,000 20(10.0) 180(90.0) 0.136 0. 712 P > 0.05
inconvenience complaints emphasized mainly long waiting 15,001 - 50,001 6(11.8) 45(88.2)
time to consult a doctor, access to pharmacy services, lack of Table 8: Association between socio demographic factors and satisfaction.
specialists, lack of medical professionals etc.
3. Accessibility/convenience should be arrange to receive
Recommendation proper medical
The OPDs mission should be to provide comprehensive Care to minimize waiting time and ease of reaching
and accessible services that anticipate, meet and exceed the
providers.
expectations of patients, staff, investigators and the public and
also supports professional development of staff and promotes a 4. The government should consider proper health care
positive work environment which facilitates open communication financing scheme to provide equity with all patients.
and team spirit between staff and patients (Table 7).
5. Physical environment should be improved by arranging
Regarding the level of satisfaction most of the component were clear signs and directions, orderly facilities and equipment
having low satisfaction level, should promptly reassess their conduct and with pleasantness of atmosphere.
to improve the satisfactory matters where the services achieving the
higher satisfaction level needed to be improved very much. 6. Management needs to update the front office staff
periodically and orient them to new developments in the
To increase the satisfaction level of the component of hospital. There was one factor that found to be associated
satisfaction Teaching Hospital Karapitiya the fine picture of the with satisfaction level.
hospital must be promoted by;
The hospital has to improve the actual performance to meet
1. Improving the interpersonal manner, the way in which
the patient’s expectation and the good reputation to improve the
providers interact personally with patients. Example;
attitudes towards the hospital (Table 8).
respect, concern, friendliness and courtesy.
2. Technical quality of care by improving competence of This study leads to several numbers of recommendations for
providers and adherence to high standard of diagnosis contributing tote improvement of quality of health services as a
and treatment. whole at the Teaching Hospital Karapitiya.

Volume 1 • Issue 2 • 008 www.scientonline.org J Primary Health Care Gen Practice

Citation: Sanjeewa GGC, Senevirathne R (2017).. Assessment of Patient Satisfaction Using OPD Service at the Out Patients Department - Case
Study - at Teaching Hospital Karapitiya Sri Lanka.
1. To maximize accessibility to health services at the
OPD has been the major concerns of the patients who
participated in this study. Most of the patents comments
given that hospital should consider waiting time for
seeing doctors and pharmacists as the priority issue that
needs to be improved as soon as possible in order to meet
the patient’s satisfaction.
2. According to this study overall picture of services to
be improved in all aspects of services, particularly,
convenience and quality of care. Change attitude of
employees about nonconforming services, it does not
mean deficiency in the department; rather it means that
things should improve to meet customer satisfaction.
3. A set of connections between the regional hospitals and
health centers should be strengthen in order to share
the responsibility for managing health care at secondary
level or at primary level. Patients with simple or common
diseases can be treated at primary level. So that it will help
to reduce the workload of doctors at the OPD of hospital.
As an end result, the doctors would have more time to
examine the patient carefully and treated appropriately.
4. This study also pointed out that patient is less satisfied
with their cost out of pocket. Even though they did not
showed with level of expectation.
Being a government hospital the medical expense is not
affordable for most of the poor patients.
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