Patient satisfaction at outreach dental program and dental institution - A comparative study

Background: Patient satisfaction is an individual′s appraisal of the extent to which the care provided has met his/her expectations and preferences. Patient satisfaction is critical for growth and prosperity of any dental service or practice. Studying patient satisfaction with dental care is one of the useful tool for evaluating the quality of dental services. Aim: To evaluate and compare the satisfaction level of patients being treated in outreach dental program and in the dental institution. Materials and method: A cross-sectional comparative study was carried out over a period of three months from June to August 2012, both in dental outreach program and dental institution. An interview was conducted among 150 patients, 75 patients in each group using pre-designed questionnaire consisting of 11 items addressing various dimensions of satisfaction. Patient′s views were rated using a five point Likert scale. Student′s t test was done to compare mean satisfaction score between the two groups using IBMR SPSSR Statistics 20. Results: In the outreach program, the highest mean satisfaction score was observed for the question on ease of reaching (3.5+0.5). In the institution, the highest mean satisfaction score was observed for the question on behaviour of dentists and staff (3.2 + 0.6). Overall there was no significant difference (p=0.78) between the mean satisfaction score of patients in outreach program (2.73 + 0.38) and in the institution (2.77+ 0.28). Conclusions: Our findings indicate that there was no significant difference in the level of satisfaction among the patients getting treatment in outreach program and in the institution except of few individual dimensions