Patient satisfaction with primary care: are there differences between the approaches in family and general medicine?
AIM To examine patients' satisfaction with health care services in primary care, and to determine a difference of attitudes towards the work of general and family medicine offices. METHODS This descriptive analytical study was conducted among patients of the Primary Health Care Zenica, who had had recent experience with the work of family or general medicine. The questionnaire for the evaluation of general and family medicine by patients was made on the basis of standardized European Project on Patient Evaluation of General Practice Care questionnaires (EUROPEP). Random sampling was used, and the patient population was divided into two clusters: patients treated in general and family practice. Respondents in the offices were selected by simple random sampling. RESULTS The study included 100 subjects, 50 for general and 50 for family medicine. There were 56 (56.0%) males, and the most common age group was 41-60 years with 42 (42.0%) subjects. Differences in patient satisfaction in favor of family medicine were statistically most significant when it came to scheduling examinations at times convenient to the patient (p=16.28), the possibility of telephone links with the office (p=32.55) and long waiting in waiting room (p=30.42). CONCLUSION Collected data confirm the high level of patients' satisfaction with the family medicine units of primary health care. Elaborated EUROPEP questionnaire seems to be a useful tool for the study Key words: satisfaction, health care quality, EUROPEP questionnaire.