An evaluation of patient satisfaction with family practice care in Slovenia.

OBJECTIVE To describe the level of patient satisfaction with family practice in Slovenia. DESIGN An internationally developed instrument for patients' evaluations of general practice care was used in a postal survey. SETTING A representative sample of 36 family practices in Slovenia. STUDY PARTICIPANTS Sixty consecutive patients in every practice were approached and offered a self-administered questionnaire. A total of 2160 questionnaires were handed out. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE Percentages of patients reporting level of satisfaction on a 5-point Likert scale for the items in the questionnaire. RESULTS On average 58.2% of respondents rated the level of care received as excellent. Waiting in the waiting room was the item rated poorest (26.0%). Participants were also less satisfied with perceived time during the consultation (51.6%) and with connectional aspects of care: the feeling that family practitioners showed interest in their personal situation (46.5%); the feeling that family practitioners made it easy to explain problems (49.1%). On the other hand patients praised many other aspects of family practice care in Slovenia: confidentiality of medical records (77.0%); listening capacity of their family physicians (69.4%); being able to speak to the family practitioner on the 'phone (72%). CONCLUSIONS Patient satisfaction with family practice care in Slovenia was shown to be relatively high and can be compared to other European countries. The results showed areas in which quality improvement is required: organizational changes to shorten the waiting time in the waiting room and greater emphasis on communication skills.