Examination of the Perception and Experiences of the Patients in the Emergency Departments of Imam Khomeini and Shariati Hospitals Regarding the Quality of Care Provided By the Health Care System

Background: the emergency department (ed) acts as the gatekeeper of patients’ treatment. therefore, eds must achieve patients’ and customers’ satisfaction by providing quality services. patient’s satisfaction and experiences are important parts of the health care system, however, few studies have qualitatively examined this topic from patients’ perspective. this study aimed to assess patients’ perception and experiences about the quality of care provided by health system in eds. materials and methods: the study data, analyzed by content analysis, were collected via semi-structured interviews with 45 patients hospitalized at different wards, who referred from ed. the data were analysed by the proposed method. results: the finding of this study revealed that patients’ experiences were classified into five main categories: patient’s satisfaction, dissatisfaction, interpretation, patient’s companion role, and advices. also patient’s satisfaction and dissatisfaction each included subcategories of environment, medical staff, hospital management, information and education factor, and patient’s rights. therefore, all factors in subcategories are effective in satisfaction or dissatisfaction and other categories. according to the patients, weakness or strength and optimum performance in every category affect their perception of the quality of care. conclusion: patients’ experiences about care services in ed depend on many factors, which their improvement is not easy to accomplish. obviously, using this information may facilitate this work and help so much in providing patients’ health care at eds. also, using this researchbased instrument can provide valuable information for improving clinical practice. this information can be used for preparing standard questionnaires, too.