Patient satisfaction with cancer care at cancer diseases hospital,lusaka

Patient satisfaction with cancer care is considered one of the important quality indicators in cancer care. Although it may seem impossible to keep all clients satisfied, a high level of satisfaction can be achieved by working on related indicators such as short waiting time and trying on improve them. Patient satisfaction with cancer care still remains a big challenge at Cancer Diseases Hospital (CDH).The main objective of the study was to determine patient satisfaction with cancer care at Cancer Diseases Hospital in Lusaka Zambia. It was hypothesized that there was no Association between patient satisfaction and waiting time, availability of Electro-medical equipment and infrastructure, Information Education and Communication (IEC) and Attitude of health workers.
A descriptive non-intervention case study design was used. The study was done at Cancer Diseases Hospital, a specialist referral hospital. The study population comprised clients aged 18 and above, both male and female who were on treatment and those coming for follow- up. A non-probability purposive sampling method was used and the sample size was 200. A semi-structured interview schedule was used to collect data. The data was analyzed using SPSS Software version 16.0.
All the independent variables in this study were significantly related to satisfaction; waiting time (P value 0.001), availability of electro-medical equipment and infrastructure (P value 0.000) Information, Education and communication (P value 0.000) and attitude of health workers (P value 0.000). Majority 76% (152) of the respondents were just satisfied, 14.5% (29) were very satisfied and 9.5% (19) were dissatisfied while none was very dissatisfied. Among the respondents who waited for a short time, 69.4% (34) were just satisfied, 28.6% (14) were very satisfied while only 2% (1) were dissatisfied and none was very dissatisfied. All the respondents 100% (4) who indicated that electro-medical equipment and infrastructure was adequate were satisfied. In addition, majority 80.3% (122) of the respondents who indicated that IEC was adequate were satisfied. Among respondents who indicated that attitude of health workers was positive, majority 78.6% (151) were satisfied.Waiting time, availability of electro-medical equipment and infrastructurejnformation Education and Communication and attitude of health workers havesignificant association with satisfaction. In order for patients to be very satisfied, all these associated factors should be addressed.Based on our findings, one major recommendation made to Ministry of Health and Cancer Diseases Hospital was to purchase more electro-medical" equipment in order to reduce on congestion and waiting time.