17 Inpatient satisfaction with physician.pmd

1College of Applied Medical Sciences, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Received: 07/04/02; accepted: 24/07/02 ABSTRACT The satisfaction of 400 inpatients with physician services at King Khalid University Hospital, Riyadh was evaluated. Patient characteristics and ward of admission were collected and a questionnaire based on the standardized Likert scale was used. The highest mean satisfaction score was for admission and the lowest for communication. Among service items, the highest mean score was for physicians enquiring about patient conditions and opinions when planning care and the lowest for physicians asking for opinions about care quality and problems. Female and less educated patients were more satisfied with their care than male and educated patients. Male surgical and medical ward patients were the most dissatisfied with physicians’ services. These findings offer hospital management information about shortcomings requiring remedial intervention.