Client′s satisfaction with the health services under Janani Suraksha Yojana in rural area of Himachal Pradesh

Background: Satisfaction can be defined as the extent of an individual′s experience compared with his or her expectations. Client satisfaction is one of the commonly used outcome measures of patient care and is an important indicator of quality of primary care and healthcare performance. Objective: To assess the satisfaction with the services among Janani Suraksha Yojana (JSY) beneficiaries in a rural field practice area of Indira Gandhi Medical College (IGMC), Shimla, and to recommend measures for improvements of services being provided to the beneficiaries. Materials and Methods: A community-based, cross-sectional study was undertaken from April 2013 to March 2014 in the rural field practice area of IGMC, Shimla, among the JSY beneficiaries who delivered and received the services under the JSY Scheme in the previous 1 year. The data were collected using a pretested, predesigned, and semi-structured questionnaire and these data were analyzed using SPSS (IBM Corp. Released 2012. IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, Version 21.0. Armonk, NY: IBM Corp). Results: The study observed that 49 (69%) of beneficiaries were found to be satisfied with services received at subcenter and the amount of JSY incentive received. It was also revealed that out of 64 beneficiaries who delivered at hospital, most 52 (81%) of them were satisfied with the services received at the place of delivery. It was found that 51 (65.38%) and 16 (20.5%) beneficiaries were found satisfied and dissatisfied with the behavior of health functionaries at subcenter, respectively. Conclusion: Client satisfaction is one of the most important determinants of health service utilization. There is a need for regular training program for health functionaries on improvement of communication skills and quality of care