Background: Health care services are being provided by health facilities to the community
with the objective of fulfilling their satisfaction but sometimes the target population can not
be always satisfied. Client satisfaction measurement is a routine tool in health care facilities to
assess the quality of service and know whether it meets the clients' expectations. Aim: Our
study was conducted to assess the satisfaction of clients receiving maternal and child health
services at El-Minia MCH facilities in order to elicit suggestion for improving the services.
Research design: It is a cross-sectional descriptive study Settings: This study was conducted
during April-October 2010, at El-Minia governorate, in Upper Egypt, 234 Km south to Cairo,
Egypt. In El-Minia governorate, 233 different health facilities are providing MCH care (10
urban centers and 223 rural health units). Sample: The target sample size 300 adult women.
Tool: An interview questionnaire was developed by the authors and filled out from the
answers of the female clients who attended the services at El-Minia MCH facilities during a
period from April to October 2010. Results: As regard to client satisfaction with the provided
MCH services, 56.3% of the clients were not satisfied while 43.7% of clients accepted the
services and described it as good. Most of the clients (57%) expressed their responses as not
satisfactory regarding the assessment of physicians and 66.7 for nursing staff. Conclusions:
The majority of the interviewed women were not satisfied with most of the aspects that
include dealing with the health care providers at all the urban and rural MCH facilities of El-
Minia governorate. Consequently, the policy makers and health care providers must revise
their quality and quantity of services, and accordingly actions must be taken to improve them
to meet the clients' expectations. Recommendations: In order to overcome this low level of
satisfaction we recommend holding regular mothers' meetings inviting opinions and
suggestions from the clients. On the other hand, adoption of an extensive national educational
and training program for the proper dealing and patients' rights among health care service
providers. Moreover, in the university education for medical and nursing students, there must
be special emphasis on patients' rights, human dealings and quality of service that satisfies all
health care clients.