JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

The government of Bangladesh is piloting a health protection scheme called Shasthyo Surokhsha Karmasuchi (SSK) since 2016; targeting the most vulnerable below poverty-line households. The experience and opinions of the patients with the pilot SSK scheme are important to improve the quality of health care and scale up the scheme at the national level.

Objective:

We aimed to evaluate the patient’s satisfaction with the services provided by the Shasthyo Surokhsha Karmasuchi (SSK) scheme in Bangladesh.

Methods:

A cross-sectional exit survey was conducted with SSK beneficiaries who were admitted at SSK facilities at least for two nights. Information on socioeconomic characteristics, experience, and satisfaction with the different aspects of services was collected through face-to-face interviews. We used a 5-point Likert scale ranging from very dissatisfied (1) to very satisfied (5) to measure the satisfaction level. Descriptive and multiple regression analyses were used to identify the factors associated with the satisfaction of patients.

Results:

About 55% of SSK patients were either very satisfied or satisfied with the health care services of the SSK scheme. The most satisfactory indicators were related to privacy maintained during diagnostic tests (3.91±0.64), physicians’ behaviour (3.86±0.77), services at the registration booth (3.86±0.62), confidentiality about diseases (3.78±0.72), and nurses’ behaviour (3.6 ± 0.83). Poor satisfaction was reported with the interaction of service providers with patients regarding treatment and illness (2.14±1.4) and with some basic amenities, such as availability of drinking water (1.46±0.76), cleanliness of toilets (2.85±1.04) and waiting room (2.92±1.09). We found a significantly positive association between satisfaction level and lower waiting time for registration and services delivery, complete course of medicines supply, and diagnostic services.

Conclusions:

To improve patient satisfaction, dimensions of health care service that focus on patient-specific circumstances and an efficient service delivery system should be ensured and maintained in SSK facilities. SSK scheme implementation authority should also give attention to improvement in registration time, waiting for time for getting service, availability of drugs and supplies, laboratory services, and basic amenities targeting different demographic groups of SSK patients.