Parent appraisal of accessibility and quality of general medical service rendered to children residing in rural area

Resumen

In order to evaluate accessibility and quality of generalmedical services rendered to children an anonymousquestionnaire survey was carried out among312 parents of children receiving medical assistance on anoutpatient basis at the Children’s Unit of the Policlinic inNovoe Devyatkino Village of Vsevolozhskiy District of theLeningrad Region. The main reasons for visiting the Children’sUnit of the Policlinic were established to be preventiveexaminations, treatment of acute diseases and submissionto tests and examinations. The majority of parentsspent in average 24.5±0.07 minutes to get to the medicalinstitution. Parents most often preferred to book an appointmentthrough a call center, online and using electronicbooking. The majority of parents (73.6%) believedthe working schedule of doctors to be convenient and actuallyvisited the doctor in accordance with the appointedtime (68.1%). When estimating the performance of theChildren’s Unit 65.3% of parents were satisfied with thequality of rendered medical services, 28.9% of parentswere partially dissatisfied and only 2.3% were completelydissatisfied. The main reasons for parents’ dissatisfactionwere long lines to the registration office (20.5±0.08 minutes),to the pediatrician (22.7±0.09 minutes, in average)and highly specialized doctors (23.5±0.09 minutes, in average),as well as challenges in obtaining a consultation ofa specialized doctor and undergoing examination. Thus,the performed survey demonstrated the necessity to improveaccessibility and quality of general medical servicesrendered to children.