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Experiences with specialist clinics health care: a cross-sectional study among adult patients


 
 
 The measurement of patient experiences is gaining importance in many healthcare systems, including the Slovenian one. The need for a national survey on patient experiences in the specialist outpatient settings emerged recently, leading to the establishment of a new questionnaire in Slovenia. The aim of the study was to measure patients' experiences in the outpatient specialist medical settings in the fields of surgery, gastroenterology, otorhinolaryngology, diabetology, endocrinology and metabolic diseases, dermatovenerology and pulmonology.
 
 
 
 The survey takes into account various aspects of healthcare such as waiting period to the visit, admission, waiting time in the waiting room, physician work, nurse work, privacy, patient rights information, and familiarity with continuation of treatment. As part of the study, patients evaluated treatment at a specialist outpatient clinic on a scale of 0 to 10, and were able to give praise and suggestions for improvements. The questionnaire used was a newly developed one, based on a review of the literature and focus groups with patients. The questionnaire was also cognitively tested and piloted before national rollout.
 
 
 
 The national survey was conducted in March 2019 and included adult patients who attended a specialist outpatient clinic in certain clinical fields. The survey included 149 specialist outpatient medical offices. 8,616 questionnaires were received. The response rate was estimated to be 32%. 79.0% of patients stated that waiting period to the visit did not pose any problem for them. 80.3% of the surveyed patients rated the medical treatment with a score of 9 or 10.
 
 
 
 The surveyed patients in our study rate highly the treatment in selected outpatient specialist clinics. The strength of the findings is limited by suboptimal sampling. Possible changes to the sampling methods to be used in future iterations of the survey are currently being evaluated.
 
 
 
 In March 2019, the first national survey on patients' experience in selected public outpatient specialist clinics in Slovenia was conducted. 80.3 percent of the surveyed patients rate the medical treatment highly with a score of 9 or 10.
