ABSTRACT
Background: Clients and providers of health care can have contrasting perceptions about the quality of service. Provider perceptions are mostly devoted to design and delivery of services while those of clients are focused in the attention received. Aim: To assess perceptions of health care providers and clients about client management and satisfaction with services provided. Material and Methods: Two public hospitals were surveyed. A qualitative analysis was performed first, reviewing reports and patient data bases and through informal meetings with providers and clients. In a second phase, an enquiry with Likert type questions was devised and answered by a total of 377 providers and 400 clients from both hospitals. Results: The median perception of clients about the quality of service was better than that of providers in both hospitals. The communication of hospitals with clients to offer timely information received a poor evaluation both from providers and clients. However the concern of hospitals about health care of the community was considered adequate. The degree of satisfaction with concrete issues such as information panels and physical infrastructure received similar evaluation both by providers and clients. Conclusions: This analysis can be useful for management decision making, identifying strengths and weaknesses of health care provided by these two public hospitals. This type of assessment can be replicated in other public and private health care facilities.