Abstract
Background: The important goals of hospitals are to deliver high quality health services and to respond to the needs of the patients. Patient satisfaction is one of the most sensitive indicators of the quality of their services as it measures the gap between what is expected and ideal from one side and what actually exists in reality.
Objective: To determine the level of the patient's satisfaction with the medical services and the delivery of those services. Methodology: Overall, 500 patients were selected from five different superspeciality hospitals of the Qassim region and they were analyzed by using a predesigned, prestructured and a self explained questionnaire during September 2009 to February 2010. The results were analyzed by using the SPSS software.
Results: A majority of the patients (50%) were satisfied with the skills of the doctors in the form of the provision of medical services and almost most of them agreed with the good infrastructure of the medical clinics. 41% of the total patients felt that the medical services which were provided at the hospitals were quick and 46% found that the overall standard of the medical services was good. 42% of the patients were satisfied with the medical services in general, while 14% were strongly satisfied. 27% of the patients felt that the doctors ignored them at some point of time and 36% believed that the doctors did not provide enough time to the patients.
Conclusion: In general, the provision of the medical services at various hospitals are satisfactory, but still, improvement in the form of the provision of laboratory services in time and providing enough time to the patients by solving their queries and at the same time, maintaining a satisfactory rapport between the physician and the patient is needed.