Knowledge, Attitude, Perception and Clients' Satisfaction with National Health Insurance Scheme Services(NHIS) At General Hospital Minna, Niger State-Nigeria

Knowledge, Attitude, Perception and Clients’ Satisfaction with National Health Insurance Scheme Services (NHIS) at General Hospital Minna, Niger State-Nigeria

                                                                               By

Ibrahim S Abdulqadir, Aliyu A Alhaji and Shehu U Adamu

Department of community medicine, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria

Correspondence: Aliyu, A Alhaji

Department of community medicine, ABU, Zaria-Nigeria

Email: draaaliyu@yahoo.com; +234 80 237 315 66                  aushehu@yahoo.com

Abstract

Background: With the increasing cost of health care to both patients and Governments, health insurance seems to be a viable option for financing health care and covering risks so that some level of social security is assured

Objective: This study was conducted to assess the knowledge, attitude, perception and clients’ satisfaction with the services under the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS)

Methods:  Multi-stage sampling technique was used to sample 144 clients receiving NHIS services. A structured, closed ended and self administered questionnaire was used to collect data on socio-demographics, knowledge, attitude and patients’ satisfaction on services.

Results: All respondents were aware of NHIS while only 40.7% had a good knowledge on various aspects of operation of the scheme. Mean age of respondents was 38 yrs, majority were females (53.2%), Muslim (64.6%) and married (67.4%) respectively. Main source of information on NHIS were: the workplace (41.7%) and electronic media (26.4%). All respondents had positive attitude towards the scheme; most (34.8%) felt that patient-provider relationship was good, however only 48.9% were satisfied with the services provided.

Conclusion: The study revealed that though all the study participants were aware of NHIS, knowledge on NHIS services was below average while level of satisfaction was also low. For the success of the health insurance scheme in the state in particular and Nigeria in general, Health care administrators need to urgently improve on NHIS services.

Keywords: Knowledge of NHIS, perceptions, clients’ satisfaction, General hospital, Niger State-Nigeria

Word count: 296                   Conflict of Interest: Nil