Predictors of Patient Satisfaction with Ophthalmic Services: A Case Study at Sunyani Municipal Hospital, Ghana

This study seeks to assess patient and health provider factors influencing satisfaction with ophthalmic services at Sunyani Municipal Hospital, Brong Ahafo, Ghana. The participants in the study were patients with eye conditions who visited the eye clinic at the time of the research. A sample size of 318 was drawn and employed in the study through simple random sampling method and the Cochran formula allowing 5% error margin. A structured questionnaire was used for the data collection. Satisfaction level was determined by estimating patient satisfaction scores with PSQ-18 reporting means and standard deviation. To assess patient factors and health provider factors influencing satisfaction, a bivariate analysis was used to assess the effects of all the domains of satisfaction as well as the socio-demographic characteristics on overall satisfaction. Overall satisfaction was 57.31% with a mean score value of 2.900. Highest satisfaction score was associated financial status with mean score value of 3.066 (61.32%) and lowest was also associated with technical quality with mean score value of 2.760 (55.20%) compared to other domains. Among the patient factors; number of visits, type of visits and financial status of patients had significant influence on overall satisfaction. On the other hand all the health provider factors had significant effect on overall satisfaction. Among all the factors put together, waiting time and financial status has the strongest association with overall satisfaction with R-square values of 0.43(43%) and 0.42(42%). Though overall patient satisfaction score was quite good, it can still be inferred from the score that close to half of clients were dissatisfied with services rendered at the eye clinic.