Satisfaction of the non-COVID patients in the hospitals with center for COVID-19 services: a multicentric study in Nepal

Abstract

Abstract: Background COVID-19 pandemic has impacted every sector, and health care sector is not an exception. This pandemic has strained the existing health care system. Currently in Nepal, most of the health centres are providing services to both COVID-19 and non-COVID patients. This might be concern for the patient due to fear of cross infection of COVID-19 when treated at the centres where both the COVID-19 patients and non-COVID patients are being cared for. Patient satisfaction is regarded as one of the indicators of quality health care performance. Hence, this study was conducted to assess the satisfaction level of non-COVID patients visiting a hospital that provides services to both COVID and non-COVID patients. Methods: A quantitative analytical cross-sectional study was carried at five different hospitals in five provinces of Nepal. For assessment of satisfaction, a validated tool with 15 domains of patient satisfactions was prepared related to COVID-19 pandemic. The tool included questions related to different hospital-service-variables. Each question was scored from 1 to 5, based on Likert scale. The data collection was done from 325 outpatients. Ethical approval was obtained from Ethical Review Board (ERB), Nepal Health Research Council. Systematic random sampling was done to enroll the patient into the study after taking consent. Descriptive analysis was performed using frequency, mean and standard deviation (SD). Independent t-test and ANOVA were used to compare the difference of satisfaction level among socio-demographic and other variables. The significance level (p-value) was set at 0.05. Results: Majority of the participants were female (57%). Mean age of the participants was 39.42±16.05 years. Most of the participants (91.6%) felt that the hospitals were providing better treatment during the COVID-19 pandemic. Over two third of the participants (74.3%) were either satisfied or highly satisfied by the service outcomes of the hospital during pandemic. The overall satisfaction score was 53.8±9.76. There was a statistically significant difference among the participants on bivariate analysis on satisfaction scores for providing better treatment during COVID-19 pandemic (p<0.001); opinion on proper information given (p<0.001); health personal punctuality (p<0.001); easily accessibility of the hospital services (p<0.001). Conclusions: The study concluded that most of the non-COVID patients were satisfied by the services provided by the hospitals that run both COVID-19 and non-COVID services. The participants also emphasized on availability of separate health care facility for treatment of COVID-19 and non- COVID patients. Keywords: COVID-19; hospital services; Nepal; pandemic; patient satisfaction