Excellence in patient rights in a physiotherapy clinic through an education-based program

Abstract

Background & Objective: Although patient’s rights seem to be accepted theoretically, the subject is often neglected in practice. Respect for patient’s rights by health care providers may optimize health outcomes and the quality of life. In addition, a perfect connection is created between health care services and patients’ needs and expectations. This study aimed to identify the deficits of patients' rights and find out whether an education-based program can result in higher respect for patient’s rights. Materials & Methods: This descriptive survey was conducted before and after the execution of an educational-based program. A structured interview was used to collect data from 204 participants. The categorized questions were reviewed and classified by 6MP classification according to the patient’s rights. Following undertaking an education-based program, the structured interview was utilized to recollect data from the participants. Outcome measures were the percentage of deficits in terms of the patient’s rights before and after the education-based program. Results: There were high percentages of deficiencies in “the right to receive optimal health services” and “access to optimal and sufficient information” sections. Almost no compliance was observed in the other rights of patients. Our results indicated that 187 deficits recorded in the pre-test phase reduced to 57 in the post-test phase. Moreover, the number of deficits declared by the participants significantly (P<0.05) diminished in all dimensions of the 6MP classification. This means that the identified deficits following the conducted education-based program were dramatically improved (three folds improvement). Conclusion: According to the findings of the present study, an education-based program may play an important role in promoting respect for patient’s rights. This suggests health care systems consider a practical and ethical (not merely legal and official) perspective for patient’s rights which in turn would optimize the quality of services provided by health care providers.