Patient Satisfaction with Physiotherapy Services: A Comparative Study between Public and Private Hospitals

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Original Article
Quality of care is a main apprehension for healthcare workers.It is a prime center of attention for healthcare services research.Patient satisfaction is being used as an indispensable requisite by authorities to evaluate and to keep track of quality of services provided at hospital [1].Satisfaction is primarily "the condition of being pleased and gesture of accomplishing one's requirements or desires".When we discuss about satisfaction related to health care services then it is the response of recipients and their understanding about quality of health care.Adherence to treatment program has been acknowledged as a major concern in outcomes and attempts to ameliorate patients' from the public hospitals and 74 patients from the private hospitals) participated in the study.Sample size was calculated from formula: A modi ed questionnaire using 5 point Likert scale was used to collect the data.A written informed consent was obtained from each patient and con dentiality was maintained at each step during the procedure.The data was entered and analyzed using IBM-SPSS version 22.0.Continuous variables such as age was shown as Mean ± SD, whereas categorical variables like gender was expressed in the form of frequency percentage.Ethical clearance was obtained from ethical committee of The School of Allied Health Sciences and University of Child Health Sciences, Lahore (No. 1234/SAHS).

M E T H O D S
from public to private hospitals.It is a comparative phenomenon that has been everywhere since 1960's but active study in this eld was started in late 1970 's and early 1980's [4].As patient's grati cation is linked to treatment adherence, physical therapy targets to endorse early patient's salvage and rehabilitation, in addition to their autonomy in activities of daily livings (ADLs), independence and quality of life.The modern prevailing model in many health care services is patient-oriented care.Within this model patient satisfaction has evolved as a major consequence in its own right.They have various physical, psychosomatic, ecological and socio-economic hurdles that require patient-oriented, broad recovery from multidisciplinary crew to guarantee best management results, social incorporation and nancial autonomy.Physiotherapists are crucial constituent of the multidisciplinary group, as they propose patients the future of ideal purpose in way of life [5,6].Clients receiving services from private and public hospitals have difference of opinion about services provided to them.Considering this, the constant observation and assessment of clients' views on the quality of health care services is essential for quality amelioration purposes; it will provide some opinion for healthcare professionals and decision makers.A wideranging pragmatic research has shown that few research studies have been carried out on patient satisfaction with quality healthcare using a comparative approach [7].Administrations which are involved in provisions of health care in a modest situation face many dares to verify their quality health care services with regard to satisfying patient needs [8].Usually there is difference in services provided to patients in every clinical set up.For positive management outcomes, a strong physiotherapist-patient bond is an integral part [9,10].The need of the study is to improve the quality of services provided by physiotherapy departments in public as well as in private hospitals and to highlight the requirements of patients and necessary areas for better service provision.The reasons linked with patient satisfaction explained may be supportive in understanding patient satisfaction level when comparing hospitals [11].Moreover, the need of study is to improve patient adherence to advice, and bene t derived from the therapy.
This cross-sectional observational study was conducted on the patients between ages of 20 to 50 years in the outpatient physiotherapy departments (OPD) at 3 private (Doctor's Hospital, Physical Society for Rehabilitation of Disabled (PSRD) and Hameed Latif Hospital, Lahore) and 3 public hospitals (Lahore General Hospital, Mayo Hospital and Jinnah Hospital, Lahore) from October 2019 to December 2019 in Lahore.Total 148 patients (74 patients

R E S U L T S
Patients were 90 Female (60.8%) and 58 Male (39.2%).Their age ranged from 20 to 50 years, with an average of 36.8 ± 8.92 years.14.6% of patients visited once a week, 46.6% twice a week and 28.4% thrice a week while 10.1% visited regularly at OPD of Physical Therapy Department.Table 1 presents other characteristics of the patients.It also shows socioeconomic status and marital status of patient.Questionnaire consisting of 5-point Likert Scale to regulate the difference between the satisfaction level of public and private hospitals.Most patients in private hospital disagree that their physical therapist did not spent enough time with them.Result showed reviews about time spent by therapist with patient in public hospital that patient is not satis ed with treatment time given to them (Table 2).receiving physiotherapy services is higher in private hospitals than in public hospitals.Five point Likert Scale for patient satisfaction was used to collect data.Components of questionnaire include features of physical therapist, their method and pro cient capability; delivery of information, explanation about their issue, treatment strategy, how they can help themselves, and diagnosis, and decision-making [12].Patients receiving physiotherapy services from private hospitals were more satis ed with t h e i r t r e a t m e n t a n d s e r v i c e s p r ov i d e d.A we l l physiotherapist patient bond is an essential part of a successful treatment regimen.Various Domains of this relationship were discovered in this study.The basic inspiration to measure patient satisfaction is to help identify and improve possible patient dissatisfaction issues.Consistency in care has also been found to effect patient satisfaction, with patients generally being satis ed when seen by the same physiotherapist throughout the treatment process.Physiotherapist should apply quality checking techniques for instance clinical parameters which would allow individual specialists to appraise their work contrary to their peers [13].Level of patient satisfaction is also effected by non-clinical or external factors.It also depends upon patient's experience, perception and expectations [14].The perception and judgment quality of every person is individualistic.It varies from person to person [15].Various studies have found that the patients are usually more contented if access to physiotherapy services is better (location, reception, waiting area) including well-mannered receptionist, well registration procedure, less waiting times.In this study, women were found to be more satis ed than men.Cautiously listening to patients and accepting the denotations patients show about their illness and health is one of the policies of practice by skilled physiotherapist to adopt a client centered methodology.There is a marked association between physiotherapists paying attention to patient's concern and their satisfaction with the services.Various population researches have demonstrated that home strategies are essential to patients and for persons who live with these patients, as they help in deterrence and recovery [16].Patients presented with better level of satisfaction with the availability, accessibility and time of the services provided as well as it is correlated to better communication and respect provided to them [17,18].Other studies concerning the satisfaction, regardless of any health sector, its population and instrument used showed high satisfaction to the interviewer by the care received.Patient satisfaction with physiotherapy treatment is an increasingly important patient centered outcome [8].Though various mechanisms of patient management are alike quality levels of the west, many In public sector hospitals patient were of view that therapist did not explain the treatment to them while in private hospitals patient agreed that their physical therapist thoroughly explained treatment given to them (Table 3).Majority of patients in public hospital agree that their physical therapist did not counsel them to avoid future problems while in private hospitals therapist provides suggestions to avoid future problems (Table 4).Patients in public hospitals were not as such satis ed with services provided to them while in private hospitals patient were satis ed with the services (Table 5).Majority of patients consider to not recommend the public hospitals to their loved ones while private patients said that they will surely recommend the facility (Table 6).The study indicated that the level of satisfaction of patients

Table 1 :
Socio-demographics of subjects

Table 2 :
Time Given to Patient by Physical Therapist

Table 3 :
Explanation of Treatment

Table 5 :
Satisfaction with the Physical Therapy services

Table 6 :
Recommendation of facility to others