Assessment of Patient Satisfaction among Insured and Non-Insured Clients Attending Sunyani Municipal Hospital

Abstract

Background: The vision of government of Ghana in instituting National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) in the country is to assure equitable and universal access for all residence of Ghana to an acceptable quality package of health care. Nevertheless, researchers notice an increasing number of drop out among NHIS members. Client satisfaction survey is an important tool employed to provide feedback on patients‟ experiences with health care services and help the health facility and the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) to initiate policies that can lead to improved healthcare delivery. Objective: To assess patients‟ satisfaction among insured and uninsured clients at the Outpatient Department (OPD) of Sunyani Municipal Hospital. Methods: The study employed a cross-sectional design. Structured questionnaires were used to interview 103 insured and 103 uninsured clients at the Outpatient Department (OPD) of the facility. Convenience sampling was used to obtain the required sample size. Data was analyzed using STATA 15.0 software. Chi-square test and logistic regression analysis were used to assess the relationship between the overall satisfaction and factors assessed, comparing insured and uninsured clients. Results: The overall satisfaction with healthcare provision was 82.04% (82.52% for insured and 81.55 for the uninsured). There was no significant difference in client‟s satisfaction between insured and uninsured clients. The higher dissatisfaction rates were recorded with financial aspect, time spent with the doctor, accessibility and convenience dimensions of healthcare provision. Conclusion: Both insured and uninsured gave favourable rating, denoting that overall, quality at Sunyani Municipal hospital is somewhat good. Patients are treated fairly, regardless of their insurance status. Recommendation: The facility should improve accessibility and convenience aspect of healthcare provision to make it more attractive.