Quality of Care in a Psychiatric Unit: Client's Perspective

Improving health care quality and patient safety are currently high on the national health agenda, a focus that will only intensify going forward. The present research study was to find out deficits in expressed quality of care by clients in a psychiatric unit. The design adopted for the study was descriptive using a structured interview schedule in accordance expressed quality care standards i.e. structure standard, process standard and outcome standard. The participants consisted of 30 clients with insight grade ≥ 3. The structured interview was taken on the day of discharge. Findings of the study revealed that in structure standard, affordability of treatment was major deficit area. In process standard, assessing need for improvement in education, providing recreational activity, were deficit areas. In outcome standard, getting information about medication benefits and side effects and their management, getting information about disease process, getting information about care and treatment at home, drug compliance were deficit areas. Thus, it was concluded that clients in psychiatric unit were able to evaluate their care and did find the deficit areas of consideration in quality care.