Exploring factors influencing satisfaction with outpatient services at NHC Maisha clinics in a peri urban setting in Nakuru County, Kenya

Abstract

Patient satisfaction occurs when healthcare providers surpass their expectations in the delivery of high-quality health services. Improvement of patient trust in hospital setups necessitates the delivery of high-quality service by health providers. This study was motivated by an analysis of patient complaints at NHC-Maisha, some of which included dissatisfaction with service delivery particularly at the smaller health facilities. This study aims to assess patient satisfaction with outpatient health care provision at NHC-Maisha, a private health care provider in a peri-urban setting in Naivasha sub-County, Nakuru County. A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted. The study adopted simple random sampling techniques and sampled 324 patients across the three branches of NHC-Maisha. Data was collected using the Health-qual scale. This scale was designed to measure user satisfaction with hospital service quality. The data was collected using a structured questionnaire and analysed using descriptive statistics, ANOVA and multiple regression. The findings showed that the average patient satisfaction was 4.254, SD = 0.777. Further, the satisfaction score based on the data collected was 60.77%. The findings indicated that there was an association between the sociodemographic factors such as gender and satisfaction with health services. The regression analysis showed all the dimensions of quality of care significantly influenced patient satisfaction positively, with the most significant effects being from the presence of empathy and perception of the safety of care followed by tangibles and efficiency. The results from this study will inform policy initiatives and interventions at healthcare facilities aimed at improving the quality of care and raising user satisfaction with health services. The study provides evidence that all four of the health service quality elements in the Health-qual scale - empathy, tangibles, safety, and efficiency have positive significant effects on patient satisfaction with outpatient service at NHC-MAISHA. This study recommends that further comparative research be done between Government and private hospitals to better understand the different implementation factors that might contribute to influencing the quality of healthcare services at the outpatient sections and patient satisfaction in hospitals.