Maternal satisfaction and awareness regarding pediatric services at a tertiary hospital in Southwestern Saudi Arabia.

OBJECTIVE Satisfaction of health service user is the most important aim for health provider. We observed and heard many dissatisfactory comments among people utilizing health services in Aseer Central Hospital, Saudi Arabia which led us to conduct this study to verify these comments. METHODS During a 12-month period (April 2001 - March 2002) we undertook a systematic sample collection on every 7th mother upon discharge through an Arabic speaking nurse. Participants answered questionnaires; and we encoded and analyzed the result using SPSS software package. RESULTS One hundred ninety-seven mothers completed the study. There were 93 female and 104 male patients. Mothers rated the satisfaction regarding health services at the Pediatric Department as excellent (71.6%), very good (20.3%) and bad (1%). Ninety-seven percent of mothers feel that the treating physician was in close contact with them, and the nature of disease was explained to them by the treating physician in 78.7% of the cases. Other parameters were tested including using the hospital as training facilities for the student as well as cleanliness and food services. All of which received satisfactory rating. CONCLUSION This study confirms mother's satisfaction regarding health services provided to them which is contrary to the belief of the community. It also supports the fact that using hospital for teaching purposes does not affect the mother's satisfaction.