ABSTRACT
Background: Quality of health care services is emerging as a field with multifaceted approach. Measuring the quality is tricky and needs standards. Many global standards are in place but still the contextual applications of standards need research on the measurable aspects of the quality of care
Material and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted at general medical out patient departments of two tertiary care hospitals of Lahore, one from the public sector and the other from the private sector selected using multi-stage sampling. 93 patients were selected from each hospital. Process measures of quality of care delivered in medical out patient departments were assessed using client flow analysis technique, performed by trained personnel
Results: Access to the hospital OPD, waiting time outside the consultant room, physical environment of the OPD and provision of relevant information to the patient were observed for adherence to standards and statistical association found with the patient satisfaction on these aspects
Conclusion: The process measures must be assessed in order to evaluate the quality of care in a specific service or hospital as patient satisfaction [outcome measure] alone is not enough to judge the quality of care