Background: To determine how socioeconomic factors, such as level of education and employment status, affect patient experiences on quality of care for ambulatory healthcare services in teaching hospitals in southeast Nigeria. Methods: The study used a cross-sectional design to collect data using exit poll. A pre-tested structured questionnaire was administered on clients accessing care in the outpatient departments of three tertiary hospitals in Nigeria. The assessment of patient experiences for quality of care was based on five (5) domains of care: waiting time; environment of the outpatient department; quality of doctor’s care; quality of care by nurses/other health workers; and responsiveness of care. In addition, the overall quality of care was assessed. Results: The mean rating of patient experience of quality of care for the ambulatory care (outpatients’ visits) was 74.31 ± 0.32%. There were moderate differences among the hospitals for various levels of patients’ care, especially for waiting time, quality of doctors’ care and overall quality of care. Employment status was a statistically significant (p ≤ 0.05) determinant of overall patient experience rating for quality of care, while the level of patient’s education was an influence on the perception of waiting by the patients and their rating of care from nurses/other healthcare providers (apart from medical doctors). Conclusion: The study show that educational and employment status (measures of socioeconomic status) of patients determined how patients receiving ambulatory (outpatient) healthcare services perceived the quality of care in the hospitals. Hence, in order to ensure equity, there is need to institutionalize patient-centered care, giving full consideration to patients’ socioeconomic status. Keywords: Quality of care, Patient Experience, Socioeconomic Status, Hospitals, Nigeria.

Background: To determine how socioeconomic factors, such as level of education and employment status, affect quality of ambulatory patient experience in Nigeria teaching hospitals.Methods: The study design is a cross-sectional exit survey. And the setting were outpatient departments of Nigerian Teaching Hospitals. Assessment of patient experiences for 5 domains of care, including waiting time, environment of the outpatient department, quality of doctor’s care, quality of care by nurses/other health workers, responsiveness of care and the overall quality of care was carried out using structured questionnaire.Results: The mean rating of quality of care or patient experience for the outpatients was 74.31 ± 0.32%. There were obvious but moderate differences among the hospitals for various levels of patients’ care, especially for waiting time, quality of doctors’ care and overall quality of care. Employment status was statistically significant (p ≤ 0.05) determinants of overall patient experience rating or quality of care for the outpatients, while the level of patient’s education was an influence on the waiting time perception by the patients and their rating of care from nurses/other healthcare providers, other than doctors. Conclusion: The study observed that socioeconomic factors such as educational and employment status of outpatients to some extent determines how outpatient perceived their experience while receiving healthcare in hospitals. Thus, there is need to institutionalize patient-centered care, giving full consideration to patients’ socioeconomic status.

Background: To determine how socioeconomic factors, such as level of education and employment status, affect patient experiences on quality of care for ambulatory healthcare services in teaching hospitals in southeast Nigeria. Methods: The study is of a cross-sectional design and exit poll was used to collect its data. A pre-tested structured questionnaire was administered to clients accessing care in the outpatient departments of three tertiary hospitals in Nigeria. The assessment of patient experiences for quality of care was based on five (5) domains of care: waiting time; environment of the outpatient department; quality of doctor’s care; quality of care by nurses/other health workers; and responsiveness of care. In addition, the overall quality of care was assessed. Results: The mean rating of patient experience for quality of care for ambulatory healthcare services (outpatients’ care) was 74.31 ± 0.32%. Moderate differences were observed between the hospitals assessed for various levels of patients’ care, especially for waiting time, quality of doctors’ care and overall quality of care. Employment status was a statistically significant (p ≤ 0.05) determinant of overall patient experience rating for quality of care, while the level of patient’s education was an influence on the perception of waiting by the patients and their rating of care from nurses/other healthcare providers (apart from medical doctors). Conclusion: The study showed that educational and employment status (measures of socioeconomic status) of patients determined how patients receiving ambulatory (outpatient) healthcare services perceived the quality of care in the hospitals. Hence, in order to ensure equity, there is need to institutionalize patient-centered care, while full consideration is given to the patients’ socioeconomic status.