Evaluation of Patients’ Satisfaction Towards the Primary Health Care Services in the Old City of Jerusalem, Palestine

摘要

The evaluation of patients’ satisfaction has become an important issue in the assessment of health care system because it is a key determinant of healthcare quality. Providers of health care service in the Old City of Jerusalem are divided into three main categories: Israelis, Palestinians and international organizations, but all of them are operating under the Israeli administration. Consequently, the comparison between different health care providers in the city led to different level of satisfaction among the patients. This study aims to assess the patients’ satisfaction as a tool to monitor and evaluate the quality of the primary health care services in the Old City of Jerusalem by investigating the main factors that affect the patient satisfaction and identifying the main problems facing the health sector in the city. A combination of quantitative and qualitative methods was applied to this research using questionnaires and interviews to collect primary data. Descriptive statistics and multiple regression analysis were used to evaluate patients’ satisfaction in the Old City of Jerusalem. Study findings showed dissatisfaction of the Arab community in the city towards some of the health care services such as emergency services, x-ray services, provision of bone specialist services and working hours of health care centers. The result of the regression analysis showed four factors that have effects on patients’ satisfaction in the Old City of Jerusalem which includes hierarchically, time and access, physical environment in the health care centers, cost and health insurance, and comprehensiveness and quality of the health care. Therefore, there is a critical need to improve the health services sector in the Old City of Jerusalem. Both Israeli and Palestinian authorities as well as the nongovernmental health organizations in the Old City of Jerusalem should pay more attention towards improving the quality of health care centers by providing more facilities and doctors especially bone specialists, obstetricians, pediatricians, x-ray departments and laboratory services, so that the people in the study area do not have to go outside of the walls to get these health services.