Improving patients’ satisfaction with service in the prosthetics and orthotics department of Gatagara Hospital

Abstract

Background: The satisfaction of patients with the service is an indispensable measurement to ascertain the quality of health professionals in every health institution. This satisfaction is considered to be one of the key factors of evidence-based health care. Objective: The focus of this project was to improve the satisfaction of patients with service in prosthetics and orthotics department in Gatagara Hospital from the mean score of 1.93 to 4 from February to May 2019. Whereby 1.93 mean scores represents low satisfaction while 4 mean scores show very high satisfaction. Methodology: This study was conducted in Gatagara hospital and focused on the P&O department where low patients‟ satisfaction with service was mostly reported. The study adopted a pre and post-intervention survey design to investigate the impact of the intervention which was the training of P&O staff on skills in communication. After the intervention, data on the satisfaction of patients with service were collected from fifty patient respondents and they were selected by the use of convenience sampling. The instrument for data collection was the modified SERVQUAL questionnaire. Data were analysed utilizing descriptive statistics such as mean and standard deviation. In addition, the independent sample t-test was computed to test the research hypothesis at 0.05 level of significance using SPSS version 16.0. Intervention: Training of P&O department staff on quality service delivery using organized communication skills sessions. Results: The findings indicated that the pre-intervention mean scores of patients‟ satisfaction with service increased from 1.93 (48.25%) to 3.23 (80.75%). The results from the independent t-test analysis showed a statistically significant difference in patients‟ satisfaction with service before and after the intervention (0.001<0.05). The effect of intervention appeared to have improved communication of P&O staff with patients so that the level of patients‟ satisfaction had improved. The contribution factor was the training of staff on communication skills which has contributed to the improvement of patients‟ satisfaction with service delivered at the hospital. Conclusion: The data analysis showed that communication skills training of P&O department staff increased the mean scores of patients‟ satisfaction with service within the department in Gatagara Hospital. Consequently, it is essential that the managers of hospitals design in-service communication training for all staff for better service delivery and patients‟ satisfaction