The study was conducted at a tertiary care service hospital
affiliated to a medical teaching institution in a big metropolitan
city to elicit the satisfaction level of patients utilising
the OPD Services of the hospital. The study was carried out
over a period of four months and the study population consisted
of personnel of the Indian Armed Forces including their
dependents.
A pre-structured bi-lingual questionnaire was developed
as study instrument based on patient expectations, guidance
being taken from questionnaires adopted in earlier studies in
India and abroad. A pilot study was conducted and sample
size was estimated as 120 with 95% confidence interval of
mean satisfaction level and 10% error of margin. The sample
size was further stratified into sub-populations of Officers
(Offrs), Junior Commissioned Officers (JCOs) and Other Ranks
(ORs) including dependents based on percentage of past OPD
attendance in the last one year. The questionnaire was further
validated by estimating Cronbach’s Alpha co-efficient for internal
consistency, which was found to be 0.96, thus indicating
high reliability of the study instrument.5
The questionnaire was divided into two parts; Part-I contained
details of socioedemographic profile of patients and
Part-II was further subdivided into various constructs related
to patient care provided in the OPD and support services. Each
of the study constructs was further elucidated by a set of
specific questions based on various attributes related to
satisfaction or dissatisfaction of patients. Each question has
multiple options on a continuum and rated on a scale signifying
lower to higher degree of satisfaction. A number was
allotted to each option in increasing order for calculation andestimation of level of satisfaction. Mean score of each question
was calculated and converted into percentage of the
highest score for that question. Kruskal-Wallis test was
utilised to understand the statistical significance of
difference of satisfaction level of various groups of patients
being studied.
Data for the study was collected over a period of four
months, every third patient reporting to the Main Dispensary
after OPD consultation being selected for the study. Every day
one Officer, one JCO and one OR or their dependents were
selected for exercising the study instrument to maintain the
continuity and avoiding any bias during sample selection. All
respondents, who consented to participate in the study, were
assured of complete anonymity and confidentiality. Only
serving personnel and their dependents attending various
service OPDs were included for the study, whereas Exservicemen
and in-patients were excluded. Moreover, it was
ensured that all respondents answering the questionnaire
have utilised service OPD of the hospital at least twice in last
one year. Statistical analysis of data was carried out using
Minitab version 16.0 software and logical conclusions drawn
from such analysis.
Results