Knowledge and awareness of patient bill of right Among patient attend in primary healthcare at Armed forces hospital Dhahran in Eastern Province

Abstract

Background

Patients’ Bill of Rights (PBR) is an essential aspect of good medical practice. There is a paucity of data available about the knowledge and awareness of patients’ bill of rights in Saudi Arabia. The objective of to assess the knowledge and awareness about PB among the patients attending outpatient clinics at armed forces hospital in the Eastern province of Saudi Arabia in terms of different factors, namely age, gender and education level.

 Method

A cross-sectional questionnaire was administered to patients visiting OPD clinics at armed forces hospital. The 15 questions related to PBR were presented on a five-point Likert scale according to agreement.

 Results

Participation rate was 72.6% and average age of patient was 40.6(±11.3). There were higher number of male participants 401(78.9%) compare to females 107(21.1%). Over 71% of the participants were belonged to public sector and 64.4% of the study participants did not have any education about PBR. Those who had education about PBR were significantly different average age 38.9(±11.5) compare to those who did not have any education 41.5(±11.1) (p-value 0.012). furthermore, average score for some questions related to PBR knowledge were significantly different when compared to patients’ education level.

 Conclusion

Study findings provided that majority of the patients visiting armed forces hospital were not having any education about PBR. Age of the patients had significant association with having knowledge about PBR. Outcome of the study suggests that efforts to increase the information about PBR are required health care institutions, policy makers and media can work collectively in this regard.