Maternity Clients Satisfaction with Client-Health Provider Interaction in State-owned Secondary Health Facilities in Cross River State

INTRODUCTION: Satisfaction with care is a facilitator and major determinant of facility-based maternal healthcare utilization. It is therefore worrisome when maternity clients express dissatisfaction with any aspect of maternity care as this tend to discourage them from patronizing facility-based maternal services. This study examined Maternity Clients Satisfaction with Client-Health Provider interaction in State-owned Secondary Health Facilities in Cross River State.

METHODS: The study adopted a cross-sectional survey design while a multistage sampling technique was used to select a sample population of 754 women of reproductive age found accessing maternal healthcare services in the studied facilities. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data and data obtained was analyse using descriptive techniques.

RESULT: Maternity clients were dissatisfied with the dimension of healthcare provider respect for clients as 321(42.6%) were dissatisfied and 133(17.6%) were “very dissatisfied”. Areas of dissatisfaction were health provider tone of voice, politeness and show of sympathy and support. However, clients were satisfied with healthcare provider provision of information as 234(31.0%) were “very satisfied” and 225(29.8%) were “satisfied”.

CONCLUSION: Based on the findings, it was concluded that respect for clients dimension of client-health provider interaction is a cause of dissatisfaction among maternity clients accessing care in State-Owned secondary health facilities. It was therefore recommended that stakeholders should make recruitment and retention of healthcare providers a priority as work overload affects interpersonal interactions. Also, update workshops on respectful maternity care should be organized at regular intervals for healthcare providers involved in maternity services.