Skip Navigation

This Article
Right arrow Full Text Freely available
Right arrow FREE Full Text (PDF) Freely available
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in ISI Web of Science
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow Search for citing articles in:
ISI Web of Science (2)
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by MARGOLIS, S. A.
Right arrow Articles by REED, R. L.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by MARGOLIS, S. A.
Right arrow Articles by REED, R. L.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

International Journal for Quality in Health Care 15:241-249 (2003)
© 2003 International Society for Quality in Health Care

Paper

Patient satisfaction with primary health care services in the United Arab Emirates

STEPHEN A. MARGOLIS1, SUMAYYA AL-MARZOUQI2, TONY REVEL2 and RICHARD L. REED1

1Department of Family Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, United Arab Emirates University, Al Ain
2Ministry of Health, United Arab Emirates

Objective. This study evaluated the suitability of a patient satisfaction questionnaire to survey health care consumers of traditional Arabic background.

Design. A cross-sectional survey using an Arabic language questionnaire that drew upon concepts of patient satisfaction measurement in Western research literature. All participants were interviewed once by experienced interviewers to ascertain their levels of satisfaction with their health care service.

Setting. Patient satisfaction was compared between the only resource-intensive clinic (RIC) in the United Arab Emirates and one resource-thrifty clinic (RTC) located in an adjacent suburb and serving essentially the same population.

Study participants. A random sample of patients attending the RIC and RTC over a 5-day period.

Main outcome measures. Six domains of patient satisfaction were measured.

Results. Compared with the RTC (n = 125), the RIC (n = 156) scored significantly higher in continuity (P = 0.001), comprehensiveness (P < 0.001), health education (P = 0.05), effectiveness (P = 0.001), and overall satisfaction (P < 0.001), while accessibility (P = 0.130) and humaneness (P = 0.102) were not significantly different. Humaneness scored the highest and continuity the lowest at both clinics. Older people’s satisfaction was higher for comprehensiveness but otherwise the same as those who were younger. More highly educated people’s satisfaction was lower for effectiveness, but otherwise the same as those who were less educated. Men and women had equal levels of satisfaction.

Conclusions. The significantly higher patient satisfaction in the RIC compared with the RTC was a strong a priori expectation, suggesting that this satisfaction questionnaire is a useful quality assurance tool in this setting.

Keywords: developing country, models of care, patient satisfaction, primary care


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 Int J Qual Health CareHome page
P. M. Hansen, D. H. Peters, K. Viswanathan, K. D. Rao, A. Mashkoor, and G. Burnham
Client perceptions of the quality of primary care services in Afghanistan
Int. J. Qual. Health Care, December 1, 2008; 20(6): 384 - 391.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.