An evaluation of patients' opinions of primary care physicians: the use of EUROPEP in Gaza Strip-Palestine

The objective of this paper is to identify the level of patients' satisfaction with primary care physicians. Data were gathered from an exit interview using a standardized questionnaire (EUROPEP) and background variables. A total of 956 patients in fifteen primary health care clinics in Gaza St...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of medical systems 2007-12, Vol.31 (6), p.497-503
Main Authors: Abu Mourad, Tayser, Shashaa, Suzanne, Markaki, Adelais, Alegakis, Athanasios, Lionis, Christos, Philalithis, Anastas
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Arabs
Cross-Sectional Studies
Female
Humans
Male
Middle East
Patient satisfaction
Patient Satisfaction - statistics & numerical data
Physicians, Family
Primary care
Surveys and Questionnaires
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The objective of this paper is to identify the level of patients' satisfaction with primary care physicians. Data were gathered from an exit interview using a standardized questionnaire (EUROPEP) and background variables. A total of 956 patients in fifteen primary health care clinics in Gaza Strip participated. Outcome measures is positive patient satisfaction (good and excellent ratings in the EUROPEP Index). As a results, the mean percentage of positive satisfaction with medical services was poor (41.8%). The poorest performance was recorded for: getting through to the clinic on the phone, being able to speak to physician on the telephone, time spent in waiting rooms and helping the patient deal with emotional problems. The comparison between clinical behaviour dimension and organization of care showed that clinical behaviour was evaluated higher. In conclusion, Palestinian patients expressed overall dissatisfaction with services provided by primary care physicians. These findings present a real challenge for Palestinian authority policy makers and administrators in terms of designing appropriate quality improvement strategies.
ISSN:0148-5598
1573-689X
DOI:10.1007/s10916-007-9090-z