Previous studies have focused largely on waiting time, cost of treatment and not much has been documented on in-patient outcome of health care seeking in a tertiary institutions from the point of view of the patient themselves. This study, investigates the socio-economic factors that determine in-patient satisfaction with care at the University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH), Benin City, Nigeria. The Sick Role Model, and Social Action theories guided the study and the research design was cross-sectional survey. A Multistage sampling technique was used to select 420 respondents from the five units of the hospital. A semi-structured questionnaire was used to obtain relevant information from the respondents. Fifteen In-depth interviews (IDIs) were also conducted. Quantitative data were analysed using descriptive statistics and Chi-square while the qualitative data were content analysed. Findings show that, 61.4% were female, 70.0% were married, 42.0% had secondary school education, and 90% were Christians. Ninety-five percent indicated moderate level of satisfaction from the use of health care. Forty-seven percent indicated that economic constraint has influence on their use and satisfaction with the health care provided. Also, cultural beliefs, recipients’ age, spousal roles, access to multiple doctors, and staff-patient relationship, health education, income and occupation influenced their satisfaction. It is recommended that socio-economic factors as they affect outcome of in-patients’ and utilization of the available health care services be integrated into their medical services in the hospital organization providing health care services especially in teaching hospital. It is important for health care professionals to give consideration to cultural beliefs and economic issues of recipients who are seeking health care in the teaching hospital.
Keywords: Cultural Beliefs, Health Care, In-Patient Satisfaction, Income
