Background: Physician satisfaction is considered an important factor influencing quality of health care provision, patient compliance, and costs to health care systems. Dissatisfaction leads to an increase in turnover of physicians and early retirement, which has a negative impact on continuity and quality of health care. Physician dissatisfaction with certain aspects of health care provision may also help to identify potential weaknesses in satisfactory functioning of health care systems. The aim of the current research project is to study the satisfaction with different organizational aspects of health care provision in Lithuania as judged by a selection of physicians. Method: The study was conducted in Lithuania in June 2004. Physicians in randomly selected health care centers were invited to take part in the survey, 505 primary and secondary care physicians were interviewed by external interviewers during the study period. Physicians were asked to express their satisfaction on items presented in a questionnaire. The questionnaire consisted of 22 questions, evaluating different aspects of health care services-working conditions, workload, financial remuneration, organization of health care infrastructure and availability of laboratory services. Answers were presented by the 5 point Likert type scale, ranging from "very satisfied" (5) to "very dissatisfied" (1). Results: Physicians who were most satisfied with their working conditions were working in private primary health care practices (91.1% satisfied or very satisfied), as compared with 54% of physicians working in state-owned primary care institutions and 49.7% in hospitals. Physicians working in cities and regional centers or towns were more satisfied with organizational aspects of health care services than physicians working in rural health care centers. Satisfaction with their financial remuneration showed that 74% of respondents stated they were "dissatisfied" or "very dissatisfied". While asked about potential deficiencies in their health care institutions, the most important identified by respondents in all localities was a perceived lack of financial support for these institutions. Conclusions: There is a significant difference in the perception of physicians in private and state health care institutions with regard to financial remuneration as well as availability of laboratory diagnostic and treatment equipment and working conditions. Based on the study findings, possibilities to increase Primary Care financing should be considered in order to improve the quality of the delivery of health care services as well as retain physicians within the health care system. Results of this study demonstrate a need of further research to quantify what could be reasonably expected from diagnostic and investigative resources to support health care in Lithuania in current economic situation.
Objectives: In July 2018, vaccine against meningococcal B infection in Lithuania was added to the national vaccination calendar. However, vaccination rates were low. The aim of the study was to identify parents' attitudes towards meningococcal disease and vaccination.Methods: In the period from February to March 2019, a questionnaire survey was conducted; 483 parents of children aged up to 2 years participated. In the validated questionnaire respondents provided data on their gender, education, age and answered questions that helped to estimate knowledge and attitudes towards meningococcal disease and vaccination.Results: Parents with higher education are more likely to believe that meningococcal infection can be prevented; 316 (65.4%) parents are concerned that their child is at high risk of infection and evaluated the level of anxiety M = 7.39, SD = 2.29 out of 10 points; 309 (64.0%) believe that the vaccine is effective (M = 8.41; SD = 1.15 out of 10 points). One third of parents will not vaccinate their children because they believe that the MenB vaccine is not safe (71.2%); 370 (76.6%) have heard negative information about this vaccine, the majority (83.2%) from the Internet. The negative information received is positively correlated with the belief that the vaccine is not effective (r = 0.18, p = 0.031) and not safe (r = 0.35, p < 0.001); 49.3% of parents report side effects after vaccination; 326 (67.5%) parents believe that they need more evidence-based information on MenB vaccination and 90.8% would like to get it from a healthcare professional.Conclusions: Due to high level of mistrust of vaccines and the lack of evidence-based information, parents decide not to vaccinate their children against meningococcal B infection. There is a great need for parents' education and the dissemination of evidence-based information among them.
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