Family Physician Reform and job satisfaction of primary health care physicians in northwest of Iran

Introduction: Patients satisfaction includes the assessment of healthcare which she/he received. This study aims at assessment of mothers’ satisfaction with the care of maternal care in Specialized Educational-Medical Centers in obstetrics and gynecological disease in Northwest, Iran. Methods: In an analytic-descriptive cross-sectional study, 1000 female patients who admitted in educational-medical centers of Northwest were studied during a 2 years period (2010-2012). They asked to fill a 34-item closed-answer questionnaire (ranking from very unsatisfied to very satisfied responses) following their discharge. Validity of the questionnaire was improved by gynecologist’s experts comments, and reliability of the questionnaire were assessed by test-retest methods (α = 0.946). Results: The satisfaction score (satisfied or very satisfied responses) were 61.2, 55.8, 61.8 and 59.5 percent for admitting process, primary care services, treatments and therapeutic interventions and overall, respectively. The satisfaction score for access to doctors was highest in the morning and lowest at the night shifts. The satisfaction score about the personnel’s behavior was lowest during the night shifts. The satisfaction score about the residents’ behavior was highest for the morning shifts. There was no significant difference between the three working shifts regarding psychological feelings, humanitarian respect, and issues like nutrition and private and public hygiene. There was a significant direct correlation between the mean score of satisfaction and patients’ age (Spearman’s rho = 0.117, P < 0.001). Conclusion: The satisfaction level of patients hospitalized in Northwest of Iran's Hospitals was intermediate. Planning new strategies in this regard with emphasis on the main limitations may improve the satisfaction rate in the future.