Consumers' satisfaction with primary health services in the city of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

OBJECTIVE: To study consumers' satisfaction and socio-demographic correlates of satisfaction with services provided by Primary Health Care Centres in the city of Jeddah.

METHODS: Study subjects included the consumers visiting the Primary Health Care Centres during the study period. Four Primary Health Care Centres were randomly selected from Jeddah according to the geographical location. Seventy five subjects were selected systematically where every tenth Saudi aged 15 years or above was chosen. Data was collected via a self administered pilot tested questionnaire which included socio-demographic characteristics, as well as the overall and differential satisfaction with the different services and facilities in the selected Primary Health Care Centres rated on a scale of 1 - 5 points, the higher the score the higher the satisfaction.

RESULTS: Male subjects constituted 60% of the visitors. More than half of the subjects were young 15-29 years of age, about 58% were married, 50% completed intermediate/secondary school, more than two fifths of the subjects were employees and more than three quarters have a monthly income of 6000 Saudi Riyals or less. The summary satisfaction score was 3.76 points and the overall satisfaction with the services provided was 2.45 points out of a maximum of 5 points. The highest satisfaction was for dental clinic (3.44 points) and the lowest for co- operation of the receptionist (1.95 point). Unskilled laborers showed the highest summary and overall satisfaction (4.31 and 2.71 points) and students showed the lowest satisfaction scores (3.54 and 1.89 points). Other socio-demographic variables were not significantly related to summary and overall satisfaction scores.

CONCLUSION: Measuring satisfaction by asking one summary question tends to give a significantly higher satisfaction score compared to satisfaction score taking in consideration of all services offered. Certain service components need corrective intervention measures to make them more satisfactory to consumers.