Fehmida Shaheen, Tahira Khalid, Nayla Zamir.
Satisfaction of women with the antenatal care at holy family hospital.
Pak J Med Res Jan ;50(2):67-70.

Background: The success of a health care program is directly linked to the satisfaction of its clients. Quality of antenatal care assessment is no exception and views of women are an important in assessing quality of such services. Objectives: The objective of our study is to find out the areas in which the women attending antenatal clinic are less satisfied so that improvements can be made in those areas thereby to improve health care delivery system at local antenatal clinic. Study design, settings and duration: Descriptive observational study, carried out at antenatal clinic Gynae and Obstetrics, Unit-II Holy Family Hospital Rawalpindi in May - June 2008. Subjects and Methods: A total of 250 women were interviewed, every third woman who has had at-least two antenatal checkups at the clinic was interviewed at exit pole. Women satisfaction attending antenatal clinic was assessed by a multidimensional structured questionnaire which was developed from womb antenatal satisfaction questionnaire. The topic guide was then used to design the final questionnaire to make it suitable for use in our antenatal clinic. Results: A total of 250 women were interviewed whose mean age was 27 years. In the clinic, the waiting time was reported to be less than 2 hours by 84% cases while 5% had to wait more than 4 hours. Courteous staff was reported by 72% and majority of ladies (66%) said that they had no social support from other ladies in the clinic. As far as professional satisfaction was concerned, 76% ladies were satisfied with the time given by the doctor, and their communication skills but only 60% ladies were satisfied with the attitude of the doctors. Overall satisfaction in antenatal clinic was reported by 73% while 27% were either unsatisfied or uncertain. Conclusions: The ladies utilizing antenatal care services at public sector do not have high expectation as far as clinic characteristics are concerned however professional dimension including doctors attitude towards women need improvement. Policy Message: The decision/ policy makers should take concrete steps in improving antenatal care of public sector hospitals.

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