Travel medicine services quality in Greece

OBJECTIVE The assessment of users' satisfaction regarding the quality of services offered by travel medicine clinics. METHOD A cross-sectional study was designed. The study sample consisted of 305 travelers while the research tool was derived from two distinct self-completed questionnaires, one recording participants'demographics and the other exploring users' satisfaction from the services provided through the evaluation of three distinct factors - environment, speed of service, interventions of doctors and other health professionals. That second questionnaire was developed by the Greek Ministry of Health. The statistical analysis was carried out using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (IBM SPSS), version 22.0. RESULTS The quality of services provided by the clinic where the research was conducted was esteemed very high in respect to all its dimensions. Accessibility by the handicapped and cleanliness of the premises were attributed to the lowest scores with 56.1% and 55.1% of the participants being satisfied by them, correspondingly. The quality of vaccinations performed by health visitors was strongly correlated with their behavior (r=0.874), while the offered information on vaccinations and their possible side effects with users'questions that were answered by the health professionals (r=0.855). Medical interventions quality was correlated with doctors' behaviors (r=0.802) as well. CONCLUSIONS The quality of the services provided by the clinic where the study was conducted, was assessed very positively by most participants regarding all its respective dimensions. This finding reveals how the aspect of quality was integrated by design in the organizational procedures that conform to the standards established by the Greek Ministry of Health and National Public Health Organization (EODY). It highlights the degree of specialization as well as training that staffing personnel has undergone.