Assessment of Quality of Care Using Information on Patient Satisfaction at Adult Oncology Center of Tikur Anbessa Specialized Hospital, Ethiopia: A Cross-Sectional Study

BACKGROUND: Cancer is one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality in the world. It results in considerable mental, physical, and emotional stress for patients. Because of the nature and impact of the disease, and its treatment, measurements of patient satisfaction are important to bring to the attention of health-care providers in order to improve care. OBJECTIVE: To assess patient satisfaction at the adult oncology center of Tikur Anbessa Specialized Hospital, Ethiopia using the EORTC PATSAT-C33 tool. METHODS: A facility-based cross-sectional study was conducted from January 2019 to May 2019. A consecutive sampling technique was employed to recruit a total of 384 study participants. Informed consent was obtained for each participant and data were collected using an interviewer-administered questionnaire. Ethical clearance and approval of the study protocol were obtained from the institutional ethics review board of the school of pharmacy. Descriptive statistics was used to summarize the data, while multivariate linear regression analysis was employed to explore factors affecting patient satisfaction. P<0.05 was considered as statistically significant. RESULTS: Among a total of 384 study participants, the majority were female (65.9%) and the median age was 49 years. In most (65.9%) participants, the health-care service cost was covered by patients themselves; the majority of them were treated for gynecological malignancy (37.2%) and most received chemotherapy + surgery (37.2%). The mean score for the EORTC-PATSAT33 scales for overall satisfaction was 44.8 out of 100. Place of residence, gender, type of cancer, duration since treatment started, age and source of health-care costs were factors associated with patient satisfaction and all together explained 83% (adjusted R square=0.830, P<0.0001) of variance. Of these, residence (where patients came from) accounted for most (78.7%) of the variance (adjusted R square=0.787, P<0.0001). CONCLUSION: The mean overall satisfaction of patients with the services provided at the outpatient adult oncology center of TASH was significantly lower than previously reported in the world literature, which was >70. Hence, a concerted effort must be made to understand and improve patient satisfaction in oncology health-care services in Ethiopia.