Shedding Light on the Roots of Dissatisfaction with Health Care Services in
the State of Qatar: An Exploratory Study
Catherine Nasrallah, MPH., Yara Qutteina, MPH., Salma Khaled, PhD.
Project funded by SESRI and the Supreme Council of Health (SCH)
1. Introduction
4. Analysis
Dissatisfaction with health care performance is an important source
of information about health system quality as perceived by the public
It has long term negative impacts on:
Translation
& Coding
• Relationship between health care
users and health care providers
• Health related behaviors
Grave Public
Health
Implications
• Health outcomes
• 257 open-ended responses to the “Other” category
were translated and coded
• Coded responses were merged with pre-coded
response options & frequency of each category was
Quantitative calculated using STATA
Analysis
What about the health care system in Qatar?
Qualitative
Analysis
• Alberta Quality Matrix for Health was used to guide
the analysis based on the six dimensions of health
system quality
High prevalence
of chronic diseases
5. Results
711 participants reported causes of dissatisfaction
Increased
demands for
healthcare
services
High rates of
dissatisfaction
with health care
services
Need to
understand
reasons for
healthcare
dissatisfaction
2. Objective
13 categories for dissatisfaction, related to 4 different
dimensions of quality of healthcare were identified
Accessibility
• Long waiting periods (68%)
• Limited choices of health care providers
(28%)
• Crowded health care facilities (10%)
• Lack of health care facilities in certain
areas (3%)
Safety
• Lack of competency and qualifications
(44%)
• High rates of medical errors (12%)
• Poor services (cleanliness, lack of
appropriate facilities & weak
administration) (31%)
Identify the sources of health care dissatisfaction in Qatar among
Qataris and white-collar expatriates aged 18 years or above
3. Methodology
Acceptability
• Poor communication (clarity & relevance)
(31%)
• Unethical, disrespectful and authoritarian
approach of staff (22%)
• Language barrier (11%)
• Discrimination (6%)
Efficiency
• Lack of qualified and specialized medical
staff (12%)
• Increased health care costs (8%)
Study: Secondary data from a national household survey on health
services utilization and health-related expenditures
Sampling: Disproportionate stratified probability sampling
Sample Size: 1,528 Qataris and 1,552 white-collar expatriates
Response Rate: 78.1%
Data Collection: Face-to-face interviews using Computer Assisted
Personal Interviewing (CAPI) conducted in Arabic and English
Instrument: Survey includes question on reasons for discontent with
healthcare services in Qatar. Respondents selected one or more precoded response options for dissatisfaction:
6. Conclusion
This research highlights several future actions to increase health
care satisfaction in Qatar. These actions include mainly:
1. Waiting time to see a health care provider
• Decreasing waiting periods
2. Language used to communicate
• Recruiting competent and qualified health care providers
3. Clarity of how things are explained to the patient
• Enhancing and monitoring quality of services provided
4. Poor services provided
• Improving medical staff communication skills
5. Limited choices of health care providers
• Undertaking qualitative research to understand reasons for
patient dissatisfaction from the health care providers’
perspectives
6. High costs of health care services
7. Other reasons