Patient Satisfaction with Physiotherapy Services: A Comparative Study between Public and Private Hospitals

Abstract

The level of services delivered by physiotherapists to recipients is stated by the satisfaction of patient but patient satisfaction studies are lacking within physiotherapy domain in public and private hospitals in Pakistan. Objective: To ascertain patient’s satisfaction with physiotherapy services and to compare the results in this context between public and private hospitals. Methods: This cross- sectional observational study was conducted in 3 public and 3 private hospitals of Lahore in a time period of three months. Total 148 patients were evaluated, 74 from the public hospitals and 74 from the private hospitals. The 5- point Likert scale was used in patients to identify patient satisfaction from physiotherapy services. Results: The study indicated that the level of satisfaction of patients who are receiving physiotherapy services is higher in private hospitals than in public hospitals. 95.8% of the patients were satisfied with the physiotherapy services received from private hospitals and only 20.6 % of the patients receiving physiotherapy services from public hospitals were satisfied with their treatment. Conclusions: Patient satisfaction is an essential domain of the extent of quality of care. So, it must be appraised on time to offer better facilities to the patients. There was a high level of satisfaction described by patient receiving Outpatient Physiotherapy Department (OPD) services in private hospitals while most of the patients receiving OPD services from public hospitals were dissatisfied with their treatment.