Introduction: Medical health care centres should aim at the application of a two-dimensional concept of quality--technical quality and functional quality. Technical quality means the compliance with norms and technical requirements which apply to medical services that are provided to patients. This concerns medical standards, technology and the competence of medical staff. Functional quality, which means the subjective estimate of patients, is an additional benefit for the patient and it becomes the best competitive advantage in conditions of comparable technical levels of provided medical services. The patient will be satisfied with medical services if these elements are balanced. The aim of the study was the evaluation of the quality of functional services in a specialist outpatient clinic in the Szczecin area by patients.
Material and methods: 200 randomly-chosen patients of specialist outpatient clinics in Szczecin were asked to estimate the functional quality of services in specialist outpatient clinics. A questionnaire was used. The results were subjected to statistical analysis.
Results: Most of the patients--51.3% had confidence in their physician. 52.34% of the patients claimed that their doctor was not interested in their problems. Almost half of the respondents--47.92% stated that there was no telephone contact with their doctor.
Conclusions: It is necessary to educate future physicians in problems of interpersonal communication.