Level of satisfaction in patients/attendants admitted with traumatic brain injury at an advanced ER/Casualty in a Tertiary Care Teaching Hospital

Abstract

Background: The objective of the present study was to develop an instrument that could be helpful to measure the level of satisfaction with hospital services in cases of traumatic brain injuries.

Methods: The present pilot study was a prospective analysis of traumatic brain injury patients. The study was approved by the institutional ethical committee. The data was collected regarding demographics, clinical presentation, management offered, complications and survival. Patient satisfaction was measured by a validated questionnaire with six domains: information, human care, comfort, visiting, intimacy, and cleanliness. The data was collected in self-administered questionnaire to measure attendants’ desires and expectations for a broad spectrum of frequently used services in a hospital. Attendants indicated their level of satisfaction by selecting responses ranging from poor=1, fair=2, good=3, very good=4 and excellent=5. Each domain was scored from excellent to poor, with higher scores indicating higher levels of patient satisfaction.

Results: During the pilot study period, data for a total 86 patients was collected. The mean age was 36.81 years (Age range 6-73 years, median-35.5 years). Mean hospital stay was 9.25 days (range 2-35 days, median 6.9 days). In present study almost all the patients were brought by close relatives. Most of the patients belonged to the low socio-economic status (coolie 33/86, farmers’ 17/86). Sixty six patients made good recovery, 14 had moderate disability and 6 patients had severe disability at the time of discharge. The overall satisfaction level was classified into excellent, very good, good, average and poor. Details of the level of satisfaction and most of the time it was excellent to very good and good level of satisfaction. There were no averages or poor response.

Conclusions: We believe the scores obtained from the questionnaire from present pilot study can serve as baseline against which to compare the results from future surveys.