Abstract

INTRODUCTION: Emergency care involves multiple factors that impact the quality of the service provided, and its evaluation is crucial to enhance user satisfaction. However, the use of surveys does not always succeed in revealing the patient's experience and the experiences of staff who provide the service. OBJECTIVE: To ascertain the perceived quality of care by users of an emergency department in a private clinic in Chile. METHODOLOGY: Qualitative, descriptive research involving 15 patients, five relatives and ten healthcare team members. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and non-participant observation. An inductive approach was used to analyze the data, implementing selective and axial coding based on seven pre-defined categories grounded on quality dimensions. RESULTS: From the analysis of the data, six categories and 16 subcategories of care quality were obtained, with the most relevant being timeliness, warmth, comfort, technical quality, and problem-solving capacity. In the case of health personnel, violence by patients or family members emerged as a relevant factor that negatively impacts quality. CONCLUSION: There was agreement in the perception of healthcare personnel, patients, and relatives. The friendliness of the staff, as well as the accessibility and timeliness of information provided to the patient regarding care processes, were identified as strengths. Opportunities for improvement were detected related to waiting times, the presence of specialists, and the privacy offered in the care setting.