The experiences of patients referring to the emergency department and their attendants: Do the patients and their attendants judge fairly?

Introduction:
Points of view and judgment of patients and their attendants about the quality of delivered services are significant factors which affect the degree of their satisfaction with systems rendering health services, determining those aspects of care which need to be modified, and even giving accreditation to hospitals by accrediting bodies.

 Method:
To study the experiences of patients referring to emergency department and those attending with them, a qualitative study was conducted using semi-structured individual in-depth interview. Purposive sampling was used to ensure maximum variation and heterogeneity. Patients who had been discharged from emergency department or had been there at least for ten hours, could answer the questions without a need for an interpreter, did not have significant cognitive problems, and were well enough to answer the questions, were included in the study. They were interviewed in secure conditions in emergency department of five major teaching hospitals (hospitals of Tehran University of Medical Sciences) in Tehran, Iran by a psychiatrist who did not have any collaboration with or connection to the settings investigated. The interviews were audio-taped and transcribed verbatim. The data was then coded and classified on the basis of the area and subject.
 Findings:
In total, 56 interviews were done with both male and female, at different ages, and with different education level and job positions. The findings of the study included several different areas some of which are as follow: Lack of generalization of what was observed to all staff, using "I don't know" in appropriate situations, lack of expecting the affairs to be perfect but expecting the problems to be investigated, considering the situation, considering various reasons for affairs not being done in time or correctly, …

 Conclusion:
It seems that the patients referring to the emergency department and their attendants are quite good at judging fairly about received services.