Assessment of patient satisfaction with oral healthcare at the Biyemassi District Hospital

Abstract

BACKGROUND: patient satisfaction plays an important role in patient adherence, both to dental treatment and to treatment recommendations proposed by oral health professionals. As such, the success of a dental practice is affected depending on whether patients are satisfied or not with services offered. OBJECTIVES: assess patient satisfaction with oral healthcare offers on the basis of accessibility, environment and care quality in two District Hospitals in Yaoundé. METHODS: to attain this objective, a descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among patients visiting the Biyem-Assi (BA) and Cite Verte (CV) District Hospitals in the Year 2021-2022. Their level of satisfaction was assessed using an administered questionnaire derived from the Dental Satisfaction Questionnaire (DSQ) and the Service Quality Questionnaire (SERVQUAL). Data analysis was done with the use of the statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) version 25. The mean was used for quantitative data and the Likert scale was used to assess qualitative variables. Results with p-value less than 5% were considered significant following a multivariate analysis using the Chi-squared test. RESULTS: following data collection, 200 participants were included in the study with a sex ratio of 2.4 and a mean age of 27 ± 9 years. The age range from 29 years to 39 years was the most represented (40%), as well the grassfields cultural area (41.5%). The literacy rate in this study was high, given that 73.5% of participants had attended the university. A majority of participants spent about 46 minutes of transport time and rated treatment cost as high (41%). Most participants (66% at BA and 69% at CV) were satisfied with access to oral healthcare. Eighty five percent of participants rated waiting rooms as comfortable, 88% reported a tidy hospital environment. Most participants (74%) of participants were satisfied with the health environment in BA, and 42% in CV. The main reason reported for dissatisfaction with the environment was lack of intimacy (60%). Waiting times between 60 minutes and 300 minutes were reported by 44% of participants. Services were considered to be in line with participants’ needs at 96%. 85.5% of participants thought of that the staff is dependable, 75% strongly agreed that treatments received were effective, 45% reported an average service provision time, 81.5% reported that treatment information was always given and 70.5% that the staff is always willing to help in time of need. Most participants were satisfied with the quality of care received (98% at B.A and 92% at CV). Average satisfaction ratings of 3.34 (SD ± 0.77), 3.46 (SD ± 0.63) and 3.89 (SD ± 0.515) out of 5 were obtained in the dimensions of accessibility, environment and care quality respectively. A global satisfaction rating of 3.55 was recorded. Participant satisfaction was significantly linked to education (p=0.000). CONCLUSION: patient satisfaction with oral healthcare offers at BA and CV is high in general. omplaints on the non-respect of patient intimacy, long waiting times and high costs were the most recorded. Strategies should be put in place to reduce waiting time and the environment improved to address the problem of compromised patient intimacy.