Factors Influencing Patient Experience in Primary Healthcare Clinics within the eThekwini Municipality in KwaZulu-Natal

Patient experience is seen as a fundamental measure for healthcare evaluation, which fuels the debate regarding the most relevant factors influencing patient experience. Limited empirical knowledge exists concerning the factors that influence patient experience from the users’ perspective in South Africa. This study addresses the research gap by determining the factors influencing patient experience among primary healthcare users in Waterloo, Grove-End and Stonebridge communities in the eThekwini Municipality of KwaZulu-Natal. The study is quantitative, descriptive and cross-sectional, and utilises a self-administered questionnaire that was distributed among 280 primary healthcare users. They strongly agreed (> 90%) that all the factors presented in the study are contributors to their patient experience. The factor analysis determined the relevance of the factors as perceived by the respondents. It was found that the doctor’s role (0.970), clinic cleanliness (0.943), coordination and continuity of care (0.943), and waiting time (0.914) are the most significant influencers of patient experience. Education (0.898), nurses (0.882), medication (0.854) and the quality of care (0.853) serve as moderate influencers. Access (0.745), family/friend involvement (0.722) and the physical state of the infrastructure (0.714) are mild influencers of patient experience. Patient-centred care (0.639), management effectiveness (0.637), communication (0.596) and information (0.443) were non-influencers of patient experience. User experience is multifaceted and each factor represents a varying level of influence. It is recommended that a patient-experience framework should be developed that can be linked to improvement initiatives within South Africa in an effort to support quality improvement.