Clients’ Satisfaction with Services Provided by Ambulances and Motor Ambulances of Tehran Emergency Medical Services: A Cross-sectional Study

Background: To improve the quality of services provided by emergency medical services (EMS), a correct understanding of the current situation and analysis of possible problems is required. The purpose of this study was to investigate the level of clients’ satisfaction regarding the missions performed by ambulances and motor ambulances (motorlances) of the Tehran EMS center, and also identify the factors affecting their satisfaction. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted for 1 month in Tehran, Iran. All clients in the age range of 18 to 87 years who were approached by Tehran EMS motorlances or ambulances were eligible. Those with wrong registered phone numbers, uninformed callers (passers, coworkers), and those who were not willing to participate in the study were excluded. A valid and reliable researcher-made questionnaire was used to assess the clients’ satisfaction. Missions were surveyed routinely, 1 to 2 days following their performance. The questionnaires were filled out by the investigators via a telephone call to the patients or the patients’ siblings. The collected data were statistically analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics 24.0. An independent t test and 1-way analysis of variance were used to compare the mean satisfaction score between the groups. Other tests, such as the Pearson correlation coefficient, were also used to examine the relationship between quantitative variables. P<0.05 were considered statistically significant. Results: In total, the data of 1100 missions were analyzed. The age range of the patients was between 1 and 100 years and their mean age was 52.1 ± 19.2 years, and the mean age of interviewees was 44.4 ± 13.4 years (18-87 years); of all the interviewees, 610 (55.5%) were women. The overall satisfaction of people with the Tehran EMS was rated as "very satisfied" in 78.5% of the cases; However, 11.2% of the participants had moderate and low satisfaction. We found that overall satisfaction was related to dependence on the health group (p≤0.001), educational status (p=0.006), economic status (p=0.002), sent vehicle (p=0.040), and diagnosis (p<0.001). Conclusion: Almost 80% of the participants were highly satisfied with the services provided by Tehran EMS motorlances/ambulances, according to this study. Those with a higher educational level, higher socioeconomic class, accurate diagnosis, proper sent car, and health dependency showed a higher level of happiness than the others.