Patient Satisfaction With Emergency Care Services Accessed At Selected Health Facilities In Nairobi City County: Patients' Perspective

Purpose: The main aim of the study was to study the factors influencing patient satisfaction with emergency care services accessed at selected health facilities in Nairobi City County. Methodology: In this study, descriptive research design was adapted. The target population of the study included patients seeking emergency healthcare from five public health facilities in in Nairobi County. Stratified proportion and simple random sampling technique were used to select 304 respondents among patients in emergency department. Data collection tool was used to obtain quantitative data. Nairobi City County referral facilities were purposely selected because of the high number of patient throughput. Systematic sampling was done to identify the respondents. Descriptive cross-sectional study design was used where quantitative approach was used for data collection. Findings: The results showed that there is a positive and significant influence of the physician service factors on access and patient's perspective to emergency healthcare services in public hospitals in Nairobi County (r = .596**, P = .001). On waiting time factor, findings show that there is a positive and significant influence access and patients' perspective to emergency healthcare services in public hospitals in Nairobi County (r=.407**, P = 0.001) on quality of care, findings show that there is a positive and significant influence access and patients' perspective to emergency healthcare services in public hospitals in Nairobi County (r=.255**, P = 0.001). Lastly, results showed that there is a positive and significant influence of the health facility type factor on access to emergency healthcare services in public hospitals in Nairobi County (r = .257**, P = .001). This implies that the four factors are important and significant determinants of access and use of emergency healthcare services in public hospitals in Nairobi County. Unique contribution to theory, policy and practice: The researcher brings in a wealth of new knowledge to the field of emergency healthcare, where the health sector can adopt a strong pillar of health service delivery by introducing a physician specialty course on emergency healthcare and medicine, further, proper mechanisms can be put to reduce waiting times before a patient seeking emergency healthcare is attended to. This would rely on the quality of care the patient receives when in need.