Clients’ Satisfaction with Primary Health Care in Muscat

BACKGROUND: To measure clients’ satisfaction with primary health care in the capital of Oman, Muscat, and also to identify the factors affecting their satisfaction. METHODS: Through a cross-sectional study in health centers, 400 participants during the period from November 2009 to February 2010 were interviewed about their satisfaction degree with the primary health care services and setting. Four urban primary health care clinics from Muscat were selected randomly. Six domains of satisfaction including accessibility to services, continuity of care, humaneness of staff, comprehensiveness of care, provision of health education, and effectiveness of services were calculated from selected variables. The mean score of each area were calculated and then divided by the number of items in each area. Finally satisfaction areas were ranked based on recent criteria. RESULTS: Mean age was 29.5 years (SD = 9.37) for male and 26.01 years (SD = 7.12) for female participants. All the areas were suitable and only continuity of care had negative score. The ranked areas of satisfaction were as humanness of staff, effectiveness of services, access to services, provision of health educational materials, comprehensiveness of care, continuity of care. CONCLUSIONS: Primary health care were accepted as a suitable strategy for providing health care among clients of urban health centers of Muscat. It can be recommended to other countries to use this as a choice for health care provision.