patient satisfaction with provided services and facilities in educational hospitals of isfahan, iran, from admission to discharge

introduction: one of the most important indices of effectiveness and delivery quality of sanitary and medical services is patient satisfaction with hospital services. it is necessary that hospitals pay attention to patient's needs and ensure their satisfaction. therefore the current study was conducted with the aim of identifying the level of patient satisfaction with hospital services delivered from the time of their admission to their release in educational hospitals of isfahan, iran. methods: the present investigation is a descriptive and cross-sectional study conducted in the fall and winter of 2009. the statistical population consisted of 196 patients referring to educational hospitals of isfahan. simple random sampling method was used. the data collection tool was a researcher-made questionnaire consisting of 66 questions on 5 areas. content validity of the study tool was approved by professionals, and its reliability was approved by calculating cronbach’s alpha (α = 0.87). data was analyzed by spss software using chi-square test, kruskal-wallis test, and anova. results: the average score of patient satisfaction with outpatient admission was 15.5%, clinic physician 27.9%, hospitalization admission 15.9%, nursing services 33%, hospitalization physician 38.6%, public and welfare services 55.2%, hospitalization section 42.1%, and financial-administration section was 14.3%. no significant correlation was observed between demographic characteristics and satisfaction score. conclusion: the results showed that overall level of patient satisfaction with hospital services was low. therefore, it is necessary to pay attention to activities and performance of different units of hospitals, identify factors causing dissatisfaction, and direct efforts towards eliminating the shortages and empowering the strengths. it is also necessary to plan for delivering higher quality services, securing financial benefits of the health section, and recognizing and amending some hospital procedures, especially admission and release procedures.