Outpatient experiences toward renewed OBGYN OPD’S services at king Saud medical city, Saudi Arabia, in Oct, 2020 - Jan, 2021

Abstract

Background: Patient experience and satisfaction are essential and widely used metrics for assessing health-care quality, and they can provide valuable and unique insights into daily hospital care and are accepted as independent dimension of quality of care, they have effect on treatment results, the loyalty of patients towards the organization, and malpractice accusations. The aim of this article is to evaluate the patients’ experience toward the Obstetrics and Gynecology (OBGYN) renewed outpatient department services, using the Generic Short Patient Experiences Questionnaire (GS-PEQ), as an indicator, reflective of health care service quality and for improvement of quality. Materials and Methods: The study was conducted among patients (N = 483), of legal age, or patients’ guardians, of both genders, attending the OBGYN outpatient department clinics, of the women’s hospital, at King Saud Medical City (KSMC), in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, during the period of October 2020 to January 2021. The Generic Short Patient Experiences Questionnaire (GS-PEQ) was randomly distributed to patients, immediately after attending the Outpatient clinical services, which is a self- administered questionnaire of multiple items that measures the most significant elements of patient perceived experience from an outpatient perspective. Results: The analysis showed that the majority of participants had positively responded to the questionnaire items, and 89.3% of participants were overall satisfied toward the OPD services provided. The socio-demographic data showed the majority of participants were females and in the age group of 31-40 years old, married, with a bachelor’s degree. The responses for every question were found to be significant, at P< 0.001. A significant correlation was found between the age group, education level and the perception of OPD clinics organization of work, and there was significant correlation between the education level and the satisfaction of help and treatment received at OPD services. Conclusion: It can be concluded, that the patients were satisfied and had a positive experience with the health care services provided by the institution, and patients have confidence in the clinicians’ professional skills, and perception of treatment as adapted to their situation. In addition, patients were involved in decisions regarding their treatment, and satisfied of the help and the treatment received, with overall perception of benefit received. Furthermore, patients expressed their disaffection with the waiting before admission to OPD services, proposing a matter that necessitate a further investigation for quality improvement. ,