Impact of socioeconomic status on patient experience: A cross sectional exit survey of Nigeria Teaching Hospitals.

Abstract

Background: To determine how socioeconomic factors, such as level of education and employment status, affect quality of ambulatory patient experience in Nigeria teaching hospitals.Methods: The study design is a cross-sectional exit survey. And the setting were outpatient departments of Nigerian Teaching Hospitals. Assessment of patient experiences for 5 domains of care, including waiting time, environment of the outpatient department, quality of doctor’s care, quality of care by nurses/other health workers, responsiveness of care and the overall quality of care was carried out using structured questionnaire.Results: The mean rating of quality of care or patient experience for the outpatients was 74.31 ± 0.32%. There were obvious but moderate differences among the hospitals for various levels of patients’ care, especially for waiting time, quality of doctors’ care and overall quality of care. Employment status was statistically significant (p ≤ 0.05) determinants of overall patient experience rating or quality of care for the outpatients, while the level of patient’s education was an influence on the waiting time perception by the patients and their rating of care from nurses/other healthcare providers, other than doctors. Conclusion: The study observed that socioeconomic factors such as educational and employment status of outpatients to some extent determines how outpatient perceived their experience while receiving healthcare in hospitals. Thus, there is need to institutionalize patient-centered care, giving full consideration to patients’ socioeconomic status.