Assessment of patient satisfaction utilizing Public Health-Care Services at district hospitals of Kashmir Valley An explorative study

Global healthcare systems aim to provide equitable and accessible care to all, but challenges persist, including urban-centric services, curative focus, and limited access. Understanding healthcare dynamics, especially in nursing, is crucial for improving service delivery and assessing quality. This research in Kashmir, North India, addresses these gaps by assessing patient satisfaction utilizing Public Health-Care Services (PHCS) at district hospitals (DH) of Kashmir Valley. A non-experimental, exploratory research design was used to assess the satisfaction of 900 patients using the public health care services in selected district hospital in Kashmir valley. A consecutive sampling technique was used to select three hospital and patients. Structured patient satisfaction tool was developed based on a literature review and adherence to the Indian Public Health Standards (IPHS) of 2012 to collect relevant data from patients and the internal consistency reliability measured using Cronbach's alpha was 0.85. The study analyzed patient satisfaction across three district hospitals in Kashmir from the year 2023 to 2024. Initially the researcher assessed the percentage of availability of public health care services as per IPHS-2012 guidelines in three district hospitals which showed that Pulwama DH met 100% availability of PHCS standard fully, while Ganderbal DH met 75% and Bandipora DH met 50%. With regard to the age of patients, the majority of the patients 61.00%, 56.00%, and 53.00% were in the age group of 21-40 years with mean age 36.31, 36.20, and 40.05 and with regard to gender, there was maximum patients were females 50.67 %, 55.33%, and 54.00% in Ganderbal, Bandipora, and Pulwama respectively. Majority of the patients had moderate satisfaction 87.44%. Only 9.44% patients had high satisfaction levels. The scores range from a minimum of 24 to a maximum of 120. Domain wise patient satisfaction from three district hospital of Kashmir showed highest mean SD of 13.87±2.39 for doctor response, domain Nurse Response showed 10.32±1.629 and the lowest mean score of 6.64±1.184 was for domain health technicians. The item wise analysis showed highest satisfaction for competence and professionalism of doctors 67.3% followed by performance of staff nurses 64.9%. The lowest satisfaction 42.4% was noted for cleanliness and hygiene of the hospital. Significant associations were observed between patient satisfaction and demographic factors; residence (χ² = 11.749, p = 0.003), occupation (χ² = 58.000, p < 0.001), and income (χ² = 52.346, p < 0.001). Conclusion: The study concludes that these findings underscore the need for targeted interventions to enhance public health services and address specific areas for improvement, ultimately promoting equitable and accessible healthcare in Kashmir.