| Abstract |
Assessing the patient-general physician relationship is of utmost importance. This is particularly the case with Health Centers (HC), one of the pillars of the health care system; without the Health Centers patients residing in rural areas sustain the hardships of travelling long distances to reach secondary and tertiary health care facilities frequently without the necessary admittance paperwork. On the other hand, patients moving within the health care system in Greece (E.O.P.Y.Y) deliberately avoid HCs due to the low levels of satisfaction among their users.
The purpose of this research is to assess the level of patients’ satisfaction from general/family physicians and health care services available at the Health Center of Arkalochori, Herakleion and to compare it with findings of relevant previous studies.
Materials and methods: to assess the level of satisfaction the EUROPEP (European Task Force for Patient Evaluation of General Practice) was used. The questionnaire has been translated into Greek and standardized and consists of 25 closed ended questions. Data were collected between September and December of 2015 from a random sample of 78 users of the Health Center of Arkalochori.
Findings: The average age of patients in the sample is 56 years (55.71±13.6). The majority of users of the Health Care of Arkalochori are women (56%).
Public Health & Health Care Management
Faculty of Medicine – University of Crete
5
Patients of lower education level tend to report higher rates of satisfaction of the “management of care in the HC” (23.9±5.5), compared to the patients of higher education level. Similarly, those suffering from chronic illness report higher levels of satisfaction of the ‘management of care’ at the Health Care of Arkalochori (23.8 ±4.6) compared to those patients who do not have a history of chronic illness (21.1 ±5.5). Users of excellent health condition tend to report higher levels of satisfaction. Their overall score of satisfaction is approximately 15 units higher than the average score of level of satisfaction of users of moderate health condition (β coef. =15.2, 95% CI= 4.9, 25.6). Older patients tend to report increasing levels of satisfaction. Their reported level of satisfaction tends to further increase with the increase of frequency of visits to the Health Care. The majority of patients report they are ‘quite satisfied’ with the quality of medical services provided, the relationship with the attending general practitioner and the unit management of Health Center. The average level of satisfaction among respondents is 82% (min 0%, max 100%). Among participants 91.4% would recommend the attending general practitioner to a friend or acquaintance while 84.1% trusts the general practitioner and would not change him.
Conclusions: Statistically significant differences are observed in the level of reported satisfaction concerning primary health care and the Health Center of Arkalochori based on the sample’s demographic characteristics (age, level of education, existence or not of chronic illness, health condition). Compared to users of primary health care in other European countries, users of the HC report the same level of satisfaction from the General Practitioner and the HC’s services. Current research points to a number of issues which need to be improved in the Health Center such as: availability of and access to the general practitioner through the HC’s phone center and reduction of waiting time. The findings of the present research can be used for the development of new policies by the administration of the Health Center and the pertinent 7nth Health Region through a platform of medical continuing education in order for best practices enhancing the quality of primary health care services to be adopted.
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Αξιολόγηση της σχέσης ασθενή -γενικού ιατρού σε ένα κέντρο υγείας ημιαστικής περιοχής του νομού Ηρακλείου Κρήτης
