A study on patient satisfaction at a multi super specialty hospital in Delhi.

The main objective of the study was to assess the level of satisfaction in terms of various quality dimensions among the patients in the study hospital. Data were collected from inpatients through structured questionnaire on eight quality dimensions such as general satisfaction, technical quality, interpersonal manner, communication, financial aspects, time spent with doctors, accessibility and convenience, and hospital services. In total, 100 inpatients were included from three departments with highest patient inflow: medicine, gynecology, and surgery. Most of the respondents were male and belongs to the age group of 31-45 years. Findings depict that highest level of satisfaction was found for interpersonal manner (86.3%) followed by communication (85.4%), general satisfaction (79.3%), and technical quality (77.3%). Least level of satisfaction was found for financial aspects (61.6%), followed by hospital services (68%), accessibility and convenience (73.5%), and time spent with doctor (76.9%).

Assessing Indian public health standards for community health centers: a case study with special reference to essential newborn care services.

The main objective of the study is to identify the availability of infrastructure facility, human resources, investigative services, and facility based newborn care services with respect to Indian Public Health Standards (IPHS) at community health centers (CHC) of Bharatpur District of Rajasthan State. Data were collected from service providers at CHC through well structured questionnaire at thirteen CHCs situated at Bharatpur District of Rajasthan State. It was found that infrastructure facilities were available in almost all the CHCs, but shortage of manpower especially specialists was observed. Availability of investigative services was found quite satisfactory except ECG. It was also observed that none of the CHCs have fully equipped facility based newborn care services (including newborn corner and newborn care stabilization unit). As per IPHS suggested in the revised draft (2010) important deficiencies were revealed in the studied CHCs of Bharatpur district and by additional inputs such as recruiting staff, improving infrastructure facilities, CHCs can be upgraded.

Human development and South East Asian countries: Special emphasis on India.

'Development' is to improve the quality of people's lives by creating an environment for them to engage in a wide range of activities, to be healthy and well nourished, to be knowledgeable and to be able to participate in the community life. The Human Development Index (HDI) is a multi-dimensional index of development as it is the combination of three development indices- health index, education index and income index. This article attempts to compare the HDI and its components between various South East Asian countries. Secondary data is used. India's position on the HDI scale is equivalent to the South East Asian average and rank 134 out of more than 190 countries. In South East Asia, India stood fifth in HDI, behind Sri Lanka, Thailand, Maldives and Indonesia. Country has launched several schemes and programs to improve the health indicators, to provide elementary education to every child and to alleviate poverty. India's HDI value has improved with time but still country has a long way to go in achieving an acceptable HDI. Need is to strengthen the existing schemes and programs.

Strengthening primary level health service delivery: lessons from a state in India.

The main aim of the study was to assess primary health centers (PHCs) in terms of availability of assured services, facility of primary management of selected cases, surgeries, maternal and newborn health care services, and child health care services with respect to Indian Public Health Standards (IPHS). Data were collected from service providers (medical officerin-charge) at PHCs through well-structured questionnaire developed by referring the IPHS for PHCs prescribed by the Directorate General of Health Services, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India. The study was conducted at five districts (i.e. Bundi, SawaiMadhopur, Kota, Tonk, and Karauli) of Rajasthan state of India. All 148 PHCs of these five districts were included in the study. Findings depict that more than 90% of the study PHCs showed availability of services such as outpatient department (OPD), antenatal check up (ANC), postnatal check up (PNC), management of reproductive tract infections/sexual transmitted infection (RTI/STI), immunization, and treatment of diarrhea. However, services such as emergency services (24 h), primary management of fractures, surgery of cataract, medical termination of pregnancy (MTP) services, management of low-birth-weight babies, facility for tubectomy and vasectomy, and facility for internal examination for gynecological conditions were poor at PHCs of the study districts, which need to be addressed for further strengthening of primary health centers.