Amirah Meshal Alrabaie^1,, Mohamed Deifallah Alzaydi²

Background: Patient satisfaction is considered an essential part in evaluating quality of care and health outcomes. It is a complex relationship between their perceived needs and expectations from the health services received. Objectives: To evaluate the level of satisfaction about primary health care services and determine the relationship between the level of satisfaction and socio-demographic factors of patients attending PHC centers. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in the primary healthcare (PHC) centers, belonging to Ministry of Health (MOH) in Taif city. A multistage random sampling technique was adopted to select a sample of adult patients attending these centers during the study period (Feb-Mar, 2019). Interview Arabic questionnaire was used for collecting data. It consisted of 38 close-ended questions regarding satisfaction with PHC centers` services and 6 specific questions on Socio-demographic characteristics. Results: Three hundreds and seven persons were involved in this study. Females represent 60.2% of them. Those aged between 20 and 40 years represent 61.7% of the participants.Overall, the highest satisfaction score was observed regarding humaneness and communication dimensions (mean score was 2.78 out of 3) while the lowest satisfaction score was observed regarding continuity dimension (mean score was 2.24), health education dimension (mean score was 2.33) and overall dimension (mean score was 2.2). The total patients` satisfaction score ranged between 48 and 110 (out of a maximum possible score of 114. The median score (IQR) was 95 (88-99). Female patients were more satisfied with PHC centers` services than male patients (mean ranks were 177.55 and 156.04, respectively), p=0.047. Married patients were more satisfied with PHC centers` services than singles (mean rank was 186.54 versus 111.25), p<0.001. Concerning educational level, Bachelor/above holders had the highest satisfaction score (mean rank=179.31) while those below secondary school graduated had the lowest score (mean rank=124.96), p=0.025. Retired/not working patients had the highest satisfaction score (mean rank=193.14) while students had the lowest satisfaction score (mean rank=125.73), p<0.001. Conclusion: Overall, patients were satisfied with services provided by PHC centers, Ministry of health in Taif City. However, majority of them thought that the services provided in the center could be better.

patients’ satisfaction, primary healthcare, quality of care, Saudi Arabia