Abstract

Objective
To assess the patient satisfaction in emergency unit by evaluating the healthcare delivery
system, attitude and behavior of healthcare givers and extent of available health facilities.
Methods
A cross sectional descriptive study was conducted among 500 study subjects who came
to emergency department of District Head Quarters Hospital, Rawalpindi during a period
of two weeks in September 2009. The respondents were enrolled in the study by
convenience sampling. The study participants included those patients who received
treatment and were about to be discharged or shifted to wards or referred to any other
healthcare center. Data was gathered by using interviewer administered questionnaire.
Results
Of the 500 subjects, 54.5% respondents were patients while 45.5% respondents were
their attendants. Majority (33.15%) presented to emergency department with accident
related injury. 23.3% respondents had to wait for more than 5 minutes at reception for
getting emergency ticket. 38.76% faced difficulty in getting the wheel chair and stretcher.
76.9% had their first contact with doctor in emergency unit while 19.1% and 3.93% were
firstly received by nurses and paramedics respectively. 16.38% had to wait for more than
30 minutes for consultation with healthcare providers after getting an emergency ticket.
64.97% were asked for investigations and among those investigations, 60.67% were done
in hospital. According to 29.5% respondents, more than 1 hour was spent in getting the
report of investigations. 45.51% were partially treated out of which 43.26% brought their
medicines from outside. 51.69% stayed in emergency unit for more than 2 hours. 68.54%
were satisfied with explanation of the health problems by healthcare givers. 61.8% were
fully satisfied with the management while attitude and behavior of doctors, nurses and
paramedics were found to be satisfactory by 95.5%, 94.5% and 93.3% respondents
respectively. Drinking water was not available to 52.25% respondents. 69.6% were
satisfied with seating arrangements. 60.11% had to use their own mobile phone for
conversation while telephone facility in emergency department was available to only
15.17%.
Conclusion
Attitude and behavior of healthcare providers were found to be satisfactory by the
respondents. However, some basic requirements in emergency department of the hospital
like availability of telephone, provision of safe drinking water and general sanitary
conditions need to be fulfilled. (Rawal Med J 2010;35: ).

Key words: Emergency department, healthcare delivery system, wheel chair, stretcher.