Measuring Patients’ Perception and Satisfaction with the Romanian Healthcare System

Abstract

Measuring patient satisfaction of healthcare service quality represents a significant element of a healthcare’s system (HS) overall evaluation. It is the starting point for creating policies in national healthcare. The purpose of this paper was to evaluate Romanian patients’ perception and satisfaction of the quality of the national HS as a whole and of its components. Exploratory and descriptive research was used. Data were collected through face-to-face interviews with Romanian patients, based on a questionnaire. Out of the 2305 respondents, 83% used the Romanian HS in the past 12 months and 58% of the respondents did not trust the system. The accommodation, food, and other facilities of Romanian hospitals were perceived as being at a low level. One third of the respondents were unsatisfied and very unsatisfied with respect to the overall impression of the Romanian HS. In addition, our research found a statistically significant relationship between confidence in the HS, age, and gender, and also between the overall impression on the HS, age and income.