Othman ZJ, Hussein H, Al Faisal W, Wasfy A
Background: Patient satisfaction has been increasingly used as one indicator of the quality of health care. Measures of patient satisfaction are used to compare health care programs, to evaluate quality of care, and to identify which aspects of a service need improvement.
Objectives: To study the characteristics of care provided for patients with diabetes mellitus type 2 at Primary Health Care centers.
Methodology: A cross sectional study among adult patients with diabetes attending centers in Dubai Health Authority. Data were collected using a standardized questionnaire Random cluster sample technique was used with proper allocation of 540 patients with diabetes from Primary Health Care centers/ Dubai Health Authority.
Results: The study showed very high overall patient satisfaction 98.8% while the mean overall satisfaction score was 90.3%. As regarding the different aspects of satisfaction the study shows that the effectiveness of health services and humaneness of stuff got the highest score 99.6% and 99.2 % respectively followed by accessibility of services was 95.2%, comprehensiveness of care 84.7%, provision of health education 83.3% and the lowest score was continuity of care 70.2%.
Conclusions: There is reasonable adherence to the guideline. The process of care showed better adherence than the outcome of care as the process were more related to the system. Filling the gap shown by this study in the diabetic care system at Primary Health Care/ Dubai health authority needs proper addressing to the weakness in the domain of continuity of care by increasing the number of staff to adopt the increased number of patients. The follow up of the patient is recommended to be with the same doctor every visit. If there is a need to be seen by another doctor, the output should be then reported to the treating doctor.
