Patients’ satisfaction with services in HIV clinic at a public tertiary health institution in Ogun State, Nigeria: Patients-providers perspectives

Abstract

Objective: This study assessed HIV patients´ satisfaction, factors associated with patients´ satisfaction and gaps in the quality of health care service delivery in a virology clinic in Ogun State, Nigeria. Methodology: A cross-sectional study design using mixed methods was used for the study. Three hundred and fifty adult HIV patients on HAART for uninterrupted six months were selected by multistage sampling technique. The Chi-square test was used to assess associations between categorical variables. The p-value used was 0.05. The key informants that were interviewed were the clinic manager, the clinic consultant, the adherence counsellor and the clinic pharmacist. Thematic analysis was done on the key informant interviews. Results: The mean satisfaction scores were high for confidentiality (4.24±0.97), overall care (4.17±0.56) and accessibility of care (4.09±0.82). Waiting time (mean of 3.35±0.42 minutes) and hospital environment (mean of 3.97±0.74) had the lowest mean satisfaction scores. Factors associated with satisfaction were patients’ income (p = 0.001), occupation (p = 0.001) and gender (p = 0.007). The key informants identified long waiting times in the clinic, shortage of manpower, inadequate financial support for patients and inadequate technical support for clinic activities as aspects of care for improvement. Conclusion: In this study, patients expressed a high level of satisfaction with the quality of care and the key informants identified challenges that affect optimal care in the clinic. Healthcare quality is a core dimension of health system performance. Continuous patient satisfaction and quality of care evaluations are needed for optimal health system performance.

Keywords

• Patients
• Satisfaction
• HIV
• Public
• Providers