Assessment of patient satisfaction on Traditional Medicine Services provided at three selected hospitals in Bhutan: a cross-sectional study

Abstract

Background: Patient satisfaction is one of the components in the assessment of quality of health care services. This study describes the level of patient satisfaction regarding Traditional Medicine services provided at the National Traditional Medicine Hospital and the Traditional Medicine Units at the two Regional Referral Hospitals in Bhutan in 2019.
Methods: This was a cross-sectional study among patients who had prior record of having availed Traditional Medicine services. This was a convenience sampling of patients. Data were collected using a questionnaire that were rated on a five-point Likert scale.
Results: Data from 398 participants were analyzed. The mean age of the participants was 41.7 (±16.1) years. The overall average satisfaction score was 80.9%. For the physician attributes, the mean satisfaction scores were 4.1 (±0.6) for Reliability, 4.2 (±0.6) for Responsiveness/Empathy, and 4.1 (±0.6) for Assurance. For service delivery processes, the mean satisfaction scores were 4.0 (±0.6) for Reception/Registration, 4.1 (±0.5) for physical environment, 3.7 (±0.6) for availability/access to services, and 4.1 (±0.6) for Dispensary services.
Conclusion: The satisfaction among the participants was high for both physician attributes and service delivery processes. The findings from this study would help strengthen the delivery of patient-centred Traditional Medicine services in Bhutan.