Exploring the opinion of hemodialysis patients about their dialysis unit

Abstract

Hemodialysis (HD) patients are subjected to a number of physical and mental stresses. Physicians might be unaware of some of these problems. We assessed our patients' opinion about the service provided at the dialysis unit. Our unit has 89 patients on HD. A questionnaire exploring our patients' opinion relative to the service provided was prepared. The patients were asked to fill-in the questionnaire in a confidential manner. Questionnaires were then collected and examined while unaware of patient identities. Sixty-nine patients (77.5%) responded to the questionnaire. Eight patients (11.6%) revealed their names on the questionnaire. According to the questionnaire, the patients were asked to assess the service of each service by choosing one of the following grades: "excellent," "mediocre" or "bad." For the whole group of contributing patients, there were 563 "excellent," 85 "mediocre" and five "bad" choices in addition to 37 blank "no comment" choices. Food service had the least percentage (68%) of evaluation as "excellent," while doctor' performance got the highest excellent evaluation (85.5%). Thirty-five patients (50.7%) added further comment(s). An audit meeting was conducted to discuss these results. Exploring the opinion of patients on HD might uncover some areas of dissatisfaction and help in improving the provided service. We recommend widespread usage of questionnaires to assess patient satisfaction as well as to assess other health-care aspects.

Quality Management System in a Haemodialysis Unit and Patient Satisfaction

“…In addition, 34.3% of our patients wished that the medical staff of the Haemodialysis Unit was more approachable, whereas 97.1% stated that the nursing staff was caring and easy to communicate with. This result is also in accordance to other studies that found patients to be in closer contact with the nursing staff than with physicians in general and during the greater part of the haemodialysis session [16,[20][21][22]. Furthermore, in a recent study, the majority of the patients observed, that even though they were satisfied with the care they received in general, they weren't satisfied with the amount of time they spent with the doctors of the Haemodialysis Unit [19].…”

“…According to our study results, 77.1% of the patients were satisfied in general by the healthcare provided at the Haemodialysis Unit and 88.6% were satisfied by the interest shown for their individual needs. This is similar to other studies, where patients very rarely evaluated the services provided as "bad" and the level of satisfaction with interpersonal care was high [16,18]. In a more recent study, as well, the percentage of the patients satisfied with the care provided at the Haemodialysis Unit was 82.56%, similar to the one found by our research [19].…”

“…Among other improvements such as compliance with legal requirements, effective monitoring of processes, reduction of deviations and risk, as well as cost, the implementation of a QMS in healthcare and more specifically in a Haemodialysis Unit which is our case, has been proven to lead to continuous improvement of the services provided, in order to consistently meet patients' needs and to evaluate their satisfaction [11,15]. Despite the fact that patients highly value the fulfillment of their personal preferences, it is a reality that in many health-care institutions, assessment of patient satisfaction is not performed routinely [9,16,17]. This was also the case in our study, since prior the implementation of the QMS in the Haemodialysis Unit there was no established process used to evaluate patient satisfaction.…”

Identifying and integrating patient and caregiver perspectives for clinical practice guidelines on the screening and management of infectious microorganisms in hemodialysis units

“…The findings add to the current literature on patient perspectives of care in dialysis units and are consistent with research that indicates there may be differences in the priorities and preferences of patients compared to those of health professionals . In line with our findings, many of these studies indicate that procedural elements of care may have more salience over health outcomes to dialysis patients.…”

“…The findings add to the current literature on patient perspectives of care in dialysis units and are consistent with research that indicates there may be differences in the priorities and preferences of patients compared to those of health professionals. 4,6,[12][13][14] In line with our findings, many of these studies indicate that procedural elements of care may have more salience over health outcomes to dialysis patients. Studies suggest patients particularly value interaction with health care professionals, the physical environment and atmosphere of the dialysis unit, the quantity and quality of information provided by staff to patients about their condition, respect for confidentiality and appropriate management of patient data, and the quality of patient transportation.…”