Satisfaction with emergency obstetric and new born care services among clients using public health facilities in Jimma Zone, Oromia Regional State, Ethiopia; a cross sectional study

Background The 2005 report of United Nations Millennium Project of Transforming Health Systems for women and children concluded that universal access to Emergency Obstetric and New born Care could reduce maternal deaths by 74 %. Even though some studies investigated quality of Emergency Obstetric and New born Care in different parts of the world, there is scarcity of data regarding this issue in Ethiopia, particularly in Jimma zone. Therefore, the aim of this study was to assess satisfaction with Emergency Obstetric and new born Care services among clients using public health facilities in Jimma zone, Southwest Ethiopia. Methods A facility-based cross sectional study was conducted in Jimma Zone from April 01–30, 2014. The data were collected by interviewing 403 clients, who gave birth in the past 12 months prior to data collection in 34 randomly selected public health facilities. The collected data were entered by using Epi-info version 3.5.4 and analysed using SPSS version 20.0. Linear regression analysis was done to ascertain the association between covariates and the outcome variable, and finally the results were presented using frequency distribution tables, graphs and texts. Results The overall mean client satisfaction with Emergency Obstetric and New born Care services in this study was 79.4 %; 95 % CI (75 %, 83 %). The result of linear regression analysis revealed that a unit decrease in satisfaction to availability of drugs and equipment, decreased overall clients’ satisfaction by 0.23 unit 95 % CI (0.15, 0.31). Conclusions The level of clients’ satisfaction with Emergency Obstetric and New born Care services was low in the study area. Factors such as availability of essential equipment and drugs, health workers’ communication, health care provided, and attitude of health workers had positive association with client satisfaction with Emergency Obstetric and New born Care services. This in turn could affect utilization of Emergency Obstetric and New born Care services and play a role in contribution to maternal and new born mortality. Therefore, the efforts of health facilities leaders and health care providers towards improvement of quality of care could contribute more for better maternal satisfaction.