ASSESSMENT OF PERCIEVED QUALITY OF PHYSIOTHERAPY SERVICE IN UNIVERSITY OF NIGERIA TEACHING HOSPITAL ITUKU OZALLA, ENUGU STATE

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1. Background of the study

Health, according to the World Health Organization, is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. Thus, a health facility should be a place that strives to help patients return to health as defined. Patient satisfaction has gained recognition as a measure of the quality of service delivery. This recognition is not lost on the health sector as the necessity for constant enhancement of quality and safety in the delivery of patient care in healthcare facilities has become an accepted concept. The observation and determination of patient satisfaction offers an indicator of the quality of care that considers the patients' perspectives. Patients and their relatives have been recognized as the best source of information on the dignity and respect with which they are being treated. Patient encounters often disclose how well a hospital system is working, offering insight into areas that need changes and providing useful information that assists management to close gaps between the way things are being run and the way things should be run.

Patient satisfaction is the degree to which the patient's desired expectations, goals and or preferences are met by the health care provider and or service. Such a report from an individual patient on the quality of medical care received from physicians, nurses and other relevant sources in a health care facility is posited to represent the level of the patients' satisfaction with the care received, even though evidence suggests that the survey data generated can be underutilized by staff. Poor patient satisfaction has been related to some undesirable details as stated in a recent article; that a patient who complains means that 20 more may have been silent though unhappy and their grievances may never be known; 70 percent of dissatisfied patients may never return; 75 percent of dissatisfied patients will discourage up to 9 family members or friends. Such figures should make a hospital's management uncomfortable. The aim of this survey was to determine patients' overall satisfaction with quality of general services and specifically with staff attitude and hospital environment while on admission to a teaching hospital in Enugu, Southeast Nigeria.