Perceived quality of care of primary health care services in Burkina Faso.
BACKGROUND
Patients' views are being given more and more importance in policy-making. Understanding populations' perceptions of quality of care is critical to developing measures to increase the utilization of primary health care services.


OBJECTIVE
Documentation of user's opinion on the quality of care of primary health care services.


METHODS
A 20-item scale, including four sub-scales related to health personnel practices and conduct, adequacy of resources and services, health care delivery, and financial and physical accessibility, was administered to 1081 users of 11 health care centres in the health district of Nouna, in rural Burkina Faso.


RESULTS
The respondents were relatively positive on items related to health personnel practices and conduct and to health care delivery, but less so on items related to adequacy of resources and services and to financial and physical accessibility. In particular, the availability of drugs for all diseases on the spot, the adequacy of rooms and equipment in the facilities, the costs of care and the access to credit were valued poorly. Overall, the urban hospital was rated poorer than the average rural health care centre. Analysis of variance showed that, overall, health system characteristics explain 29% of all variation of the responses.


CONCLUSIONS
Improving drug availability and financial accessibility to health services have been identified as the two main priorities for health policy action. Policy-makers should respect these patient preferences to deliver effective improvement of the quality of care as a potential means to increase utilization of health care.
Baltussen
R M P M
RM
Department of Tropical Hygiene and Public Health, Heidelberg, Germany. baltussenr@who.int
Yé
Y
Y
Haddad
S
S
Sauerborn
R S
RS
D002050:Burkina Faso; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D006297:Health Services Accessibility; D006801:Humans; D017060:Patient Satisfaction / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011320:Primary Health Care / Q000592:standards*; D019984:Quality Indicators, Health Care; D011787:Quality of Health Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires