الفهرس 
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Abstract
mobile clinic is an important community-based service delivery model to address the gaps in healthcare delivery and reach underserved populations in remote areas. Although the satisfaction of patients and healthcare providers is important to enhance the quality of mobile clinic services, there is a paucity of studies on satisfaction with mobile clinics in Egypt, particularly at Sohag governorate.
Herein, we conducted a cross-sectional questionnaire study between January and June2020 to assess the satisfaction of patients and healthcare providers with mobile clinics in El-Ballina district (Suhag).
The present study included 428 patients. They were Egyptians (100%), 93.2% were between 18 and 50 years of age, 74.8% were females, 83.2% were married, 87.4% were rural residents, and 65.2% were unemployed.
Most (79.4%) of visits were repeated, and the most common reason was service/check-up (86.2%). The most commonly visited clinics were family planning (53%), internal medicine (29.4%), dentistry (8.1%), obstetrics and gynecology (6.3%), pediatrics (2.6%), and surgery (2.5%).
Patients were generally satisfied with the process and service of mobile clinics. The percentage of satisfaction was over 90% for the reception, registration, waiting time, attention and professionalism of nursing staff and physicians, pharmacy, cleanliness and readiness, and customer services. However, they showed considerable dissatisfaction with certain services, particularly radiology center (75.9%), health insurance office (51.6%), and laboratories (23.6%).
Male patients were significantly more satisfied with the registration process and health insurance office than females, and rural residents were generally less satisfied than urban residents.
Forty-nine healthcare providers worked in mobile clinics in this study. All were Egyptians, which markedly facilitated communication with patients. About two-thirds of healthcare providers in the mobile clinics were females, which appears to be an important factor to overcome cultural barriers and encourage women to use mobile clinics, particularly in highly conservative isolates.
Nearly all healthcare providers were satisfied with the services of mobile clinics; only 6.1% were dissatisfied with the radiology center. All mobile clinics had the ability to transfer patients in emergencies and for investigations, and there were regularly used and updated medical records, including drugs, medical supplies, patient’s data (registry system), and reviewing patient’s files on revisit.
The majority of mobile clinic services were funded by the government, including drugs, check-ups, investigations, family planning, and social services. Available drugs included antihypertensives, antidiabetics, antibiotics, Iron, vitamins, antipyretics, and oral rehydration solutions.
Conclusion
T
care providers with the processes and services of mobile clinics in El-Ballina districts, except for some aspects. This indicates that the mobile clinic service represents an important model for the delivery of healthcare to communities in geographically and topographically inaccessible areas. However, further efforts are required to improve the quality of services provided by mobile clinics and to address some limitations.
RECOMMENDATIONS
• Underscoring the importance of mobile clinics in delivering healthcare to underserved populations in remote areas.
• Regular assessment of the satisfaction of both patients and healthcare providers with mobile clinics.
• Using results from satisfaction studies for continuous quality improvement of mobile clinics.
• Searching for additional funding resources, other than from government, to increase financial resources and improve healthcare services.
• Conducting future large-scale studies on satisfaction with mobile clinics.