الفهرس 
Family Medicine/Family Practice
Quality of Care and Patient SatisfactionOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
 |  | from | 129 |  |  |
| | | from | 129 | | |
Abstract
SUMMARY Over the past two decades, a change in public opinion and their perception about primary health care has been noticed. With all the changes in the society, media projection and advocacy, it would be unrealistic to expect that health services will be allowed to remain undisputed. Patients‟ increasing demand, fiscal restraint, and rising patient load have resulted in debates about the best approach to organize and to deliver primary care. Patients‟ satisfaction with the medical care relates directly with the physician’s practice style. Among the inter-personal relationships, the relation between a doctor and a patient is considered the most complex one. Complexity in their relationship is often non-voluntary and requires close cooperation and understanding each other. Although the new advancements in the medical field help in the diagnosis and treatment, yet interpersonal communication between a doctor and a patient remains to be the main tool for the exchange of information. Patient satisfaction is a key criterion by which the quality of health care services is evaluated. It can be defined as a subjective evaluation of the service received against the individual‟s expectations. Patients‟ judgment of hospital service quality and their feedback are essential in quality of care monitoring and improvement. Patient satisfaction data are routinely collected and used for continuous quality improvement by health-care institutions and hospitals in developing countries. Patient satisfaction is measured over a wide range of health service dimensions, including availability, accessibility and convenience of services, technical competence of the providers, interpersonal skills and the physical environment where services are delivered. However, it