Expectation of Clients Towards Primary Care Service at Commune Health Centers

Abstract

Background: Patients’ expectations are considered to influence their satisfaction with the service provided. This can be used to provide a deeper understanding and better approach to improve health care delivery. Objectives: This study was to identify patients' expectations forhealth care services at commune health centers in Huong Thuy Town, Thua Thien Hue province. Methods: A cross-sectional study with data collected from 423 people in Huong Thuy, using the 38-item standardized questionnaire to measure patients' expectations of primary care. A five score Likert scale from strongly disagree to strongly agree was used to report people’s expectation towards primary care services at commune health centers. Results: Among five important features of primary care, patient expectations for aspects of the medical care were the highest ranking. Aspects that achieved the lowest expectations were the availability and accessibility. The items such as “Facilities should be well equipped and modern”, “Doctor should guide patient in taking medicines correctly” and “Doctor should make patient feel free and comformtable to talk about health issues” received the highest scores. Conclusions: The study provides evidence on what patients expect for primary care service, thus helps to improve primary care quality, especially on the aspects that patients rate highest priorities. Key words: primary care, patient’s expectation, commune health center