Hospitals in Bangalore need to focus on cutting costs and time in patient care while offering advanced treatment modalities to patients, according to the Hosmac Foundation study.

The study carried out in leading hospitals in Bangalore indicated that they need to lay emphasis on timely provision of services and also invest in staff training and capacity building to make them more patient-friendly and technologically sound. As for hospitalization a large section of patients pay out of their pockets, hospitals need to devise novel payment options to enhance patient convenience. Overall patients satisfaction levels with regards to quality, infrastructure and level of technology was high. Patient's suggestion for improvement primarily included increasing space allocation, reducing the waiting period and making services more affordable.

In an effort to analyze the satisfaction levels of the patients, seeking hospital care, Hosmac Foundation, surveyed patients across leading hospitals in Bangalore. The study was conducted to understand the 'perception and satisfaction' of patients for three essential components namely comfort, convenience and quality of care.

The objectives of the study were to identify the patient criteria's for selection of private hospitals. It also helped to elicit the patient's opinion about the level of comfort and convenience provided by hospitals with regard to infrastructure, availability of services and payment modules. It verified the level of information sharing and patients participation in decision making. It also analyzed the perception regarding affordability of seeking care in hospitals which helped to rate the quality of care from the perspective of the patients, Dr Vivek Desai, managing director, Hosmac Foundation part of Hosmac India, said.

The sample size of the survey covered 60 patients or their relatives availing institutional care in private hospitals in Bangalore. The method adopted was a structured close ended questionnaire administered to the participants by the data collector.

Under the Factors influencing patient's choice of hospitals it was observed that an overwhelming majority of cases (56 per cent), it was the doctor who made the choice for the patient. Patient relatives and friends (15 per cent) along with the impression of quality and infrastructure (14 per cent) influenced the decision of patients. Brand image also contributed to the decision of the patients (9 per cent). Other factors included cost of care, nature of services (tertiary level care was preferred over secondary level care). The findings implied that doctors continue to influence the decision of patients for selecting healthcare facilities in Bangalore. However, impression of quality, infrastructure, the brand image and opinion of relatives and friends or word of mouth publicity played a vital role in the final selection of the hospital.

On the sources of information about the hospital, 67 per cent sourced it from their doctors or relatives and 26 per cent through the Internet or phone calls.

On evaluating a few basic parameters, to assess the level of satisfaction from the perspective of comfort, it was observed that, a sizable number of patients were unhappy with the facilities provided for the attendant/ patient relative (32 per cent) during the patient stay in the hospital. Significant dissatisfaction was observed for the entertainment facilities (15 per cent), bathroom facilities (15 per cent) and air-conditioning facilities (12 per cent).