ASSESSMENT OF PATIENT SATISFACTION AT EMERGENCY SERVICES GIVEN AT ADDIS ABABA BURN, EMERGENCY AND TRAUMA CENTER

Abstract

ABSTRACT BACKGROUND - Emergency departments overcrowding, long wait, and uncomfortable waiting room conditions may lower perceived quality of the patient experience and satisfaction. In the last decade, the increasing frequency of Emergency Department visits has coincided with decreasing numbers of Emergency departments and inpatient beds. Thus, Emergency departments nationwide are under growing pressure to provide care for more patients, resulting in overcrowding, longer wait time, boarding of admitted patients, and ambulance diversion. OBJECTIVE – The objective of the research is assessing patient satisfaction towards emergency services given at Addis Ababa burn, emergency and trauma center in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 2009. METHOD - A cross sectional prospective study design was conducted at AaBET from January 2017 to March 2017. The source population were all adults who came to AaBET for an emergency care. RESULTS – In this study a total number of three hundred and seventy-nine participants were involved and among them, 223 (58.8%) of them who filled the questioners are patients and 156 (41.2%) of them are attendants. 72.4% of the participants were satisfied with the emergency service given at AaBET. Regarding age of participants, those between 18 – 28 accounts for the highest number of participants which is 44.3%. Of the eighty-nine participants who can’t speak Amharic language, 85 of them had a language barrier. Length of stay prior to being seen by physician, the minimum length of stay is one minute and the maximum length of stay is three hundred minutes. Of the major aspects of emergency medical services given, the dissatisfaction rate is higher in the aspects of cleanliness of the bathroom, toilet and EOPD, nurses’ explanation well about the illness & length of stay before being seen. All the lines of dissatisfaction have to be improved to give the best possible care for the patients. CONCLUSION – The research shows that majority of the participants are satisfied with the emergency services given at AaBET, but still evidence based interventions are needed on the line of availability of prescribed drugs in the hospital, cleanliness of the EOPD, toilet and bathroom, nurse’s explanation about their illness in a way the patients will understand, advices on danger signs up on discharge, advices on major side effects of the drugs prescribed, good guides on where to move in the hospital and on shortening waiting time.