Perception of healthcare service access, rapidity and healthcare provider-patient communication at the University Teaching Hospital of Kigali.

BACKGROUND: Healthcare industries have seen recent movements towards continuous quality improvement and patient satisfaction which were put into metrics used to measure the quality of health care services. Our objectives were to determine the levels of services delivered and to measure the satisfaction of patients and family’s perceptions on the quality of healthcare services at the University Teaching Hospital of Kigali (CHUK).

METHODS: This study used a purposive sampling method to determine the sample size calculation. Data was collected through a questionnaire distributed to patients and patient families who presented at CHUK from January to March, 2016. The analysis of qualitative data was done using Ritchie and Spencer analysis development (1994) while quantitative data analysis was done with Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS).

RESULTS: We found that 52% of participants visited the hospital because of a chronic health condition. 80% used neither phone calls nor text messages to book appointments. 14% of patients used phone calls and 2% sent text messages to book an appointment but they remained unanswered. 82% got appointments on time. The majority (44%) of the participants didn’t wait at registration windows. After registration, 20% of participants were instantly seen by a health care provider while 19% waited up to 1 hour to be attended to.

CONCLUSION: We found that the majority (80%) of participants didn’t use the phone when requesting appointments. Therefore, people should be announced of the existence of phone-based appointment systems. In addition, web-based appointment systems should be established for prompt service.