Do the quality of health care services provided at personal health care institutions of Kaunas city and access to it meet expectations of pregnant women

Virginija Vanagienė, Birutė Žilaitienė¹, Tadas Vanagas

Kaunas University of Medicine, ¹Institute of Endocrinology, Kaunas University of Medicine, Lithuania

Key words: pregnant women; quality of health services; access to health services.

Summary. Objectives. To evaluate if the quality of services provided by family physicians and obstetricians/gynecologists at primary personal health care institutions of Kaunas city and access to it meet the needs and expectations of pregnant women.

Material and methods. Pregnant women visiting the selected health care institutions at their third trimester of pregnancy were asked to fill in the anonymous questionnaire. The study was conducted at two randomly selected maternity centers of Kaunas city and two family practices of Kaunas city where antenatal care was provided by family physicians. The questionnaires were given to 106 patients visiting family physicians (response rate was 88.7%) and to 202 patients visiting obstetricians/gynecologists (response rate was 81.7%).

Results. Health services provided by family physicians and obstetricians/gynecologists met the expectations of pregnant women in respect of providing with information and communication. The patients of obstetricians/gynecologists significantly more often stated that they were very satisfied with patient-physician communication (P<0.05), they significantly more often understood explanations given by the physician (P<0.001) and claimed having sufficient knowledge about pregnancy (P<0.05), while the patients of family physicians significantly more often asserted that the physician helped them in preparation for childbirth (P<0.05). The patients of obstetricians/gynecologists significantly more often did not face any problems with access to services as compared to the patients of family physicians (z=3.0). Most of pregnant women stated that they were satisfied or very satisfied with the quality of health care at the health care facility providing them with antenatal care irrespective of the physician’s specialty.

Conclusions. The quality of antenatal health care provided by both family physicians and obstetricians/gynecologists and access to it satisfied the needs and expectations of the surveyed women. Correction of the limitations noticed, e.g., closer communication, more understandable explanations, more attention to preparation for childbirth, better work planning, could improve the quality of antenatal care provided by the family physicians.

Correspondence to B. Žilaitienė, Institute of Endocrinology, Kaunas University of Medicine, Eivenių 2, 50009 Kaunas, Lithuania. E-mail: zilaitiene@gmail.com

Received 2 April 2009, accepted 8 August 2009