OBJECTIVES: Research on health services’ responsiveness (ability of a health provider to meet or exceed patients’/service recipients’ expectations) and consequently self-perceived quality of care is increasingly shifting towards measuring patient reported experiences. The aim of this study was to evaluate patient experiences using Health Centres’ (HCs) primary care services in urban and semi-urban areas of Greece.

METHODS: A cross-sectional survey was conducted in 2017. The study sample included 350 users of five HCs’ services in urban and semi-urban areas (convenience sampling), who evaluated several dimensions of care (accessibility, comprehensiveness and continuity/coordination of care, quality of medical and nursing care and facilities) in an ascending positive experience scale from 1 to 5. The questionnaire used was based on a measurement tool developed, tested and validated by the authors.

RESULTS: More than ¼ of the users (26.6%) were >65 years, 51.7% were women, 90% were of Greek nationality, 1/5 had higher education and almost half of the participants suffered from a chronic disease (48.6%). The mean total patient experience score was high (=3.98), indicating positive levels of patient experience. Users rated quality of nursing care highly (=4.21), while comprehensiveness of care and accessibility scored lower (3.93 and 3.95, respectively), but still over the mid-point scale. After adjusting for patient characteristics, decreased educational level was related with increased patient experience scores (p<0.035) and the Greeks had higher continuity & coordination and comprehensiveness of care scores than the non Greeks (p=0.002 and p<0.001, respectively).

CONCLUSIONS: In general, the study showed that HCs’ users reported relatively positive experiences at all dimensions of care evaluated. Nevertheless, it is important that population groups such as the migrants are provided with more coordinated, continuous and comprehensive PHC services in order to improve their health status, avoid future hazards and, therefore, increased costs of hospital services.