Vol 9, Issue 3, 2021 ISSN - 2321-4406 PERCEPTION OF PATIENTS REGARDING QUALITY OF HEALTHCARE SERVICES AT PUBLIC AND PRIVATE TERTIARY CARE HOSPITALS FARRUKH ANSAR 1 *, HIRA NAVEED 2 , ALMAS KHATTAK 1 , MUHAMMAD SAAD 1 1 Northwest School of Medicine, Peshawar, Pakistan. 2 International Islamic University, Islamabad, Pakistan. Email: farrukhanser@gmail.com Received: 07 March 2021, Revised and Accepted: 12 April 2021 ABSTRACT Objectives: Patient satisfaction is a significant marker for estimating the quality of medical services being provided at a clinical facility. It also influences the opportune, proficient, and patient-focused provision of quality medical services. Methods: Data from 768 outdoor patients were collected from four tertiary care hospitals in Islamabad, Pakistan. Half of the patients were from public sector hospitals, while others were from private hospitals. A self-administered questionnaire (Cronbach’s alpha=0.896) was structured for data collection. Using SPSS, descriptive statistics, independent t-test, and Chi-square test were used to analyze data. Results: Overall, 51.4% of patients were satisfied with the services provided to them at hospital Outpatient department. Patients who experienced private sector hospitals (74%) were significantly more satisfied than those who visited the public sector hospitals (29%) (p<0.001). Gender-wise, female patients were more satisfied (58%) than male patients (47%). Insufficient attention of the doctor, the behavior of the supporting staff and inadequate management of disease record were the red flags highlighted by the patients. Conclusion: The current investigation has shown that quality healthcare is significantly associated with economic conditions; patients’ perspective have expressed that the private sector provides satisfactory medical services at a high expense, whereas the public sector is a less expensive alternative but it lags in the provision of high-quality services and patient satisfaction. Keywords: Patient satisfaction, Quality of health care, Patient satisfaction, Public sector, Private sector. INTRODUCTION Quality healthcare may be defined as; provision and assessment of safe, efficient, viable, opportune, and patient-centered services to attain optimal health [1]. The provision of high-quality health services to the public has always been a matter of concern. Because of the complexities of health-care framework, detailed investigation of the needs, available resources, utilization, and distribution lines are important factors to assess the quality of health-care services [2]. In recent years, due to amplified awareness among masses regarding health-care services, their expectations have been raised and patients will to pay more to avail of quality health services thus playing a pivotal role in coercing health providers to upgrade their services to meet the exigency [3]. Patient satisfaction is a significant factor to evaluate the quality of health-care services, as patients are customers in health-care sectors and customers consistently expect excellent service. A patient’s insight regarding the health-care service can improve service quality which builds trust between the healthcare provider and patient which in a long run brings about profitability, a safe working environment and advanced healthcare [4]. It has been demonstrated that intangible attributes of services influence the customer’s appraisal of the service. Perception of service quality not only leads to patient satisfaction but also helps the management in optimal decision making [5]. As the health-care sector is more of a people-oriented sector; therefore, it should deliver the services as perceived by patients [6]. Patients who are satisfied with their physicians are most likely to have greater treatment compliance compared to unsatisfied patient [7]. Taking into consideration the fact that public and private hospitals have kept different goals in mind when catering to the need of their patients, it is hypothesized that the level of patient satisfaction would be different between the two sectors of healthcare [7]. However, the present study differs from the previous in the context that it magnifies the quality of health-care services provided in the capital region of Pakistan from patients’ point of view. This study was aimed to determine the patient’s perception toward private and public health-care service providers and to analyze the relative significance of quality measurements in anticipating the patient’s satisfaction and participant allegiance. METHODS This cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted among four major hospitals of Islamabad in September 2019. Patients were approached who were present at the Outpatient department (OPD) for elective consultations. A proper written consent according to the guidelines of World Health guidelines was taken from each participant. Only those patients were included in the study that was present at OPD and signed the consent form. In-door and patients with an emergency were excluded from the study. For sample size estimation, Openepi software was used. Keeping the confidence level at 95%, anticipating frequency 50%, absolute precision (margin of error) 5% and design effect 1, the calculated sample size was 384. However, to increase the strength of our sample, we collected the data from 768 individuals, 384 from each private and public sector hospitals. Trained research assistants approached the patients and explained to them about nature and need of this study and then requested them to take part in the study. Non-randomized convenient sampling technique was used for data collection. Patients were asked to sign the consent form and then a self-administered questionnaire was presented. However, for individuals who could not fill the questionnaire by themselves or did not understand English, a research assistant asked the questions in their native language and filled the questionnaire. Research Article © 2021 The Authors. Published by Innovare Academic Sciences Pvt Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons. org/licenses/by/4.0/) DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.22159/ijms.2021v9i3.41334. Journal homepage: https://innovareacademics.in/journals/index.php/ijms