Iranian Journal of Medical Ethics and History of Medicine

Observation of patients’ rights as a major component in defining the standards of clinical services can increase patient satisfaction and is an important indicator of health care quality. Since most hospital patients are admitted through the emergency department, this study was conducted to investigate the observance of patients’ rights in the emergency department of Nemazee Hospital during 2015.

This cross-sectional study was performed on 100 patients over a period of one month. Data were collected by a questionnaire and analyzed using SPSS version 21 and statistical tests including descriptive statistics and inferential analysis.

The mean of the patients’ age in this study was 54.4 ± 19.35. Based on our findings, the overall level of observing patients’ rights was 51%, while patients’ expectations were 93%. Moreover, there was a meaningful difference between observance of the patients’ rights and their expectations in all aspects based on the paired sample t-test (P<0.05). It was also established that age was one of the factors affecting observance of patients’rights (P<0.05).

In this study, observation of patients’ rights in the emergency department was at the intermediate level, while patients’ expectations were higher in comparison.

In order to promote patient satisfaction, it seems necessary to educate the personnel and medical students on patients’ rights by holding workshops, reducing the waiting time for receiving services, and establishing an order in the system based on the patient’s condition.