Abstract
Background: Patient satisfactions is a widely accepted metric of quality
of care. Patient satisfaction is important in understanding the
perspectives of the recipients of care and can act as a quality
improvement tool. It is of paramount importance to assess patient
satisfaction specially after a major healthcare reform. This is the
first study to describe the level of patient satisfaction with new
Primary Care in Cyprus. Methods: An internationally validated tool for
patients’ evaluations of general practice care was used in an online
survey in one of the largest group practices in Cyprus Primary Care. An
online questionnaire was sent to all registered email addresses of the
group practice. A total of 5,000 emails were sent measuring patient
satisfaction based on the percentages of patients reporting level of
satisfaction on a 5-point Likert scale for the items in the
questionnaire. Results: The overall satisfaction percentage was 80.51%
(SD 32.36). The vast majority of the questions asked were rated as
excellent. Waiting in the waiting room was the item rated poorest with a
mean(SD) 4.05 (1.08). The item rated the highest was the safeguarding of
patients records and confidentiality with a mean (SD) 0f 4.65(0.70).
Conclusions: The first patient satisfaction survey since the
introduction of the new NHS in one of the largest Primary care centres
seems to demonstrate very high satisfaction rates comparable with other
developed EU NHSs. A larger study needs to be performed with more GP
practices in order to obtain a national understanding of the patient
satisfaction to supplement quality improvement interventions and foster
patient empowerment.