Patient Satisfaction Survey 2009

05 Apr 2010

Nearly 8 out of 10 patients (76%) expressed overall satisfaction at public healthcare institutions. This is an improvement of 2 percentage points as compared to 2008, thus reversing a dip experienced that year. 2009 also saw the highest percentage of patients (78%) who said they would recommend the services of public healthcare institutions to others. This reflects a high level of confidence in our public healthcare.

2. The improved showing was confirmed by an independent 2009 Patient Satisfaction Survey commissioned by the Ministry of Health. Nearly 10,000 patients from the public hospitals, national specialty centres and polyclinics were interviewed from September to December 2009. This is the sixth MOH Patient Satisfaction Survey conducted to assess the level of patient satisfaction, compare performance among the healthcare institutions, and to gather suggestions for continual service improvement.  

3. Patients were asked to rate their level of satisfaction with the institutions, and whether they would recommend the services to other patients.

4. In particular, they were asked to assess their perceptions based on the following nine quality service attributes:

a. Facilities

b. Care coordination

c. Knowledge and skills of doctors

d. Care and concern by doctors

e. Knowledge and skills of nurses

f. Care and concern by nurses

g. Knowledge and skills of allied health professionals

h. Care and concern by allied health professionals

i. Clear explanation by staff on the procedures and care

Scores for all these service attributes showed improvement compared to the previous year, and contributed to overall improvement in patient satisfaction.

SURVEY RESULTS

Overall Satisfaction level

5. In the 2009 survey, 76% of the patients rated their overall satisfaction rating as “excellent” or “good”. (Page 2 of Annex A)

Would you recommend? 

6. Based on their experience, patients were asked if they would recommend the healthcare institutions to others.  78% of the patients said that they would “strongly recommend” or “likely to recommend”. (Page 8 of Annex A)

Comparison Among Institutions

A) Public Hospitals

7. Among the hospitals, AH continued to achieve the highest overall satisfaction ratings at 85%, exceeding its already high rating of 83% in 2008.  SGH made the greatest improvement, by 9%-points, to 78%, to rank the 3rd highest service satisfaction level, after KKH at 79% (Page 3-4 of Annex A).  All hospitals improved on their ratings as compared to 2008.

8. There were variations in service levels as perceived by patients between emergency departments (A&E) and wards.  Overcrowding in A&E and long waiting time for admission at TTSH had an adverse impact on its overall satisfaction rating.  This should improve when KTPH fully opens later this year.

9. Patients were also asked whether they would recommend the hospital to other patients.  All the hospitals have improved on their scores (Page 9-10 of Annex A). 

(B) National Specialty Centres (NSCs) 

10. Among the national specialty centres, IMH clinched the top position, achieving the highest satisfaction ratings at 90%, followed by NSC and NHC, both at 86%. (Page 5-6  of Annex A)

11. When asked whether they would recommend the national specialty centres to other patients, NSC topped the list with 90% of respondents indicating that they would “highly recommend” or “likely to recommend” to other patients.  This is followed by NHC at 88% and NCC at 87% (Page 11-12 of Annex A).  

(C) Polyclinics

12. Marine Parade Polyclinic was top for patient satisfaction, while Bukit Batok Polyclinic was highly recommended by many patients (Page 7 of Annex A, where ranking was in order of aggregating “excellent” and “good” ratings).

Conclusion

13. After a dip in service level in 2008, public healthcare institutions have largely reversed the trend and for some, went on to score their best results since this series of surveys started 6 years ago. 

14. Particularly notable in the 2009 survey was a high level of patient satisfaction with the care and concern provided by the nurses. Patients said that they greatly value nursing care as an important aspect of patients’ recovery.  When they are satisfied with nursing care, they also tend to rate the institutions’ overall service level highly. 

15. Meanwhile, the waiting time to consult the doctor remains an area of dissatisfaction.  The healthcare institutions will have to work harder on this area.  We have added the number of doctors significantly and will continue to do so, to meet rising expectation.  However, this will also have an impact on operating cost.

16. The annual Patient Satisfaction Survey serves to encourage hospitals, national specialty centres and polyclinics to constantly improve their services and address the key concerns of patients.

Annex A (0.8 MB)