Patients’ Satisfaction With Care From Nigerian Federal Capital Territory’s Public Secondary Hospitals: A Cross-Sectional Study

BACKGROUND: Patients’ satisfaction remains an important tool for evaluating quality of care in the emerging global trend of patient-centered care. AIM: To assess satisfaction with care received by patients at public secondary hospitals in Abuja, north central Nigeria. METHOD: We measured patients’ satisfaction using structured questionnaire, and Cronbach α was used to assess consistency in item responses. A multivariate mixed-effects linear regression was fitted to identify factors influencing the overall satisfaction. RESULTS: All satisfaction domains tested were scored at “intermediate-positive levels” except for the “feeling being valued and appreciated as patients” domain that scored the least positive response level. On the overall, respondents rated the hospitals at high satisfaction level. There was a significant positive association between patients’ satisfaction and careful listening of care providers; patients’ perception of being valued and appreciated by the hospital staff (P = .003 and P = .001, respectively). CONCLUSION: Our findings suggest high satisfaction of care at public hospitals in Abuja Nigeria. Patients satisfaction survey should be integrated into hospital management planning and administration as part of quality improvement.