Emergency Medicine: Open Access
Open Access

Abstract

Real-Time Patient Satisfaction of Emergency Department Services in a Tertiary- Care Hospital in Karachi, Pakistan

Munawar Khursheed, Jabeen Fayyaz, Nukhba Zia, Asher Feroze and Muhammad Baqir

Background: In Emergency Department (ED), patient satisfaction is an important quality indicator. The aim of this study was to assess the patient satisfaction with ED services using real- time patient satisfaction survey.

Methods: The study was conducted for two weeks in the ED of Aga Khan University in December 2011. A structured questionnaire was used to capture patient’s feedback on service quality in the ED. Patient response was recorded using five-level Likert scale; strongly agree, agree, neutral, disagree and strongly disagree. Respondents were either patients or their relatives.

Results: Total 348 real-time survey forms were completed. Of these 18.6% (n=61) were in P1 triage category, 32.6% (n=107) in P2 and 48.8% (n=160) were P3 patients. An overall satisfaction rate was 4.27 with satisfactory response from 84.6% patients with ED services. About 87.7% of patients were satisfied with time taken to be attended by the triage staff at the counter, Time taken to get an ED bed was 86.8% and time taken until beginning of treatment after getting an ED bed is 84.3%.

Conclusion: Patient satisfaction is an important quality indicator which enables to identify areas of improvement in ED so as to provide better care & services to patients.