Factors affecting public dissatisfaction with urban family physician plan
A general population based study in Fars Province
Keywords:
Satisfaction, Family Physician, Referral SystemAbstract
Background: Understanding the level of public satisfaction with a family physician plan as well as the relevant factors in this respect, can be employed as valuable tools in identifying quality of services.
Objective: To determine the factors affecting public dissatisfaction with an urban family physician plan in Iran.
Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted from January 2014 through June 2015 on Fars Province residents in Iran, selected based on cluster sampling method. The data collection instrument was comprised of a two-part checklist including demographic information and items related to dissatisfaction with the family physician plan, specialists, para-clinic services, pharmacy, physicians on shift work, emergency services, and family physician assistants. Data were described by SPSS 20.
Results: In this study, 1,020 individuals (524 males, 496 females) were investigated. Based on the results, the most frequent factor affecting dissatisfaction with physicians was their single work shifts and unavailability (53%). In terms of dissatisfaction with family physicians’ specialist colleagues and para-clinic services, the most common factors were related to difficulty in obtaining a referral form (41.5%) and making appointments (21.6%), respectively. Given the level of dissatisfaction with pharmacies, the significant factor was reported to be excessive delay in medication delivery (31.6%); and in terms of physicians on shift work and emergency services, the most important factor was lower work hours for family physicians (9.2%).
Conclusion: It seems that, the most common causes of dissatisfaction with the urban family physician plan are due to the short duration of services, obtaining a referral form and making appointments, and providing prescribed medications.
References
Marmot M, Friel S, Bell R, Houweling TA, Taylor S. Commission on Social Determinants of Health.
Closing the gap in a generation: health equity through action on the social determinants of health. Lancet.
; 372(9650): 1661-9. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(08)61690-6. PMID: 18994664.
Baker R. Development of a questionnaire to assess patients' satisfaction with consultations in general
practice. Br J Gen Pract. 1990; 40(341): 487-90. PMID: 2282225, PMCID: PMC1371443.
Bagheri-lankarani K, Kalate Sadati A, Emanieh MH, Joolaei H, Moghadami M, Asemani O. A Review of
Family Physician in Iran. Shiraz: Kosar; 2015.
Virji A, Britten N. A study of the relationship between patients attitudes and doctors prescribing. Fam
Pract. 1991; 8(4): 314-9.
Armstrong D. What do patients want? BMJ. 1991; 303(6797): 261-2. doi: 10.1136/bmj.303.6797.261.
Yost NP, Bloom SL, Sibley MK, Lo JY, McIntire DD, Leveno KJ. A hospital-sponsored quality
improvement study of pain management after cesarean delivery. Am J Obstet Gynecol. 2004; 190(5): 1341- 6. doi: 10.1016/j.ajog.2003.10.707. PMID: 15167840.
Williams B. Patient satisfaction: a valid concept? Soc Sci Med. 1994; 38(4): 509-16. doi: 10.1016/0277- 9536(94)90247-X. PMID: 8184314.
Azizi J, Karimyar Jahromi M, Hojat M. Assessment of Darab County Villagers’ Satisfaction with Family
Doctor Functions from Different Aspects. J Fasa Univ Med Sci. 2012; 2(3): 193-8.
Honarvar B, lankarani KB, Ghaharmani S, Akbari M, Tabrizi R, Bagheri Z. Satisfaction and dissat is
faction to ward urban family physician program: A population based study in shiraz, southern Iran. Int J
Prev Med. 2016; 7(3). doi: 10.4103/2008-7802.173793. PMID: 26941904, PMCID: PMC4755284.
Jannati A, Maleki M, Gholizade M , Narimani M , Vakili S. Assessing the strengths and weaknesses of
family physician program. knowledge & health. 2010; 4(4): 38-43.
Ghorbani A, Nakhaie M, Dovlat Abadi A, Alemi H, Tabarraie Y. Study of satisfaction Rate of family
Medicin Plan in insured population of sabzevar university Medical of sciences. Journal of sabzevar
university of Medical science. 2013; 19(4): 364-70.
Karimi I, Salarian A, Zohreh A. A comparative study on equity in access to health services in developed
countries and designing a model for Iran. Arak Medical University Journal. 2010; 12(4): 92- 104.
Tawfik KA, Alshehri AM, Abdul Aziz F, Khwaja MS. Patterns of referral from health centers to hospital in
Riyadh region. Eastern Mediterranean Health Journal. 1997; 3(2): 236-53.
Manca DP, Varnhagen S, Brelt MP, Allanca GM, Szafran O, Ausford A, et al. Rewards and challenges of
family practice: Web-based survey using the Delphi method. Can fam physician. 2007; 53(2): 278-86.
PMID: 17872645, PMCID: PMC1949127.
Pour Shirvani N, Amiri A, Motlagh ME, Kabir MJ, Maleki MR, Shabestani Monfared A, et al. Evaluation
of the Function of Referral System in Family Physician Program in Northern Provinces of Iran: 2008.
JBUMS. 2010; 11(6): 46-52.
van Uden CJ, Winkens RA, Wesseling GJ, Crebolder HF, van Schayck CP. Use of out of hours services: a
comparsion between two organizations. Emerg Med J. 2003; 20(2): 184-7. doi: 10.1136/emj.20.2.184.
PMID: 12642541, PMCID: PMC1726038.
Managheb SE, Firouzi H, Jafarian J. The impact of communication skills training based on calgary- cambridge guideline on knowledge, attitude and practice of family phisicians in Jahrom University of
medical sciences 2007. Jahrom Medical Journal. 2008; 6(2): 74-84.
Miri MR, Shafiee F, Hydrania AR, A. K. Study on behavior interntion model (BIM) to the attitude of
tribement towards family planning. Journal of Mazandran University of Medical Sciences. 2003; 12(37):
-73.
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2020 KNOWLEDGE KINGDOM PUBLISHING
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
