Background: Patient satisfaction is an important attribute of care in modern hospitals; private setups generally score better over public institutions. There are few objective studies to assess patient satisfaction in Indian public hospitals, which could identify their strengths and weaknesses for further planning. Objectives: To assess— (a) extent of patient’s satisfaction with different domains of Pediatric services in the study hospital, using caregivers as surrogate informants; (b) effect of selected demographic characteristics on satisfaction level. Patients and methods: In this observational study, 400 caretakers of hospitalized children were interviewed on day of discharge using a 25-point prevalidated questionnaire evaluating satisfaction rates in four major domains of hospital care. Results: Overall satisfaction rate (SR) was 94.5%. Domain-wise, it was highest with quality of medical care (94.0%) and least with information and communication (76.3%). SR in the domains of staff behavior and hospital environment was 89.8% and 85.8% respectively. Top three dissatisfiers were— (a) not informed about avenues of financial support (27.7%), (b) not informed about hospital rules (65.8%), (c) doctors did not introduce themselves (66.5%). SR was lower in female respondents and in those staying with male children. Female respondents were less satisfied with environment and staff behavior, while undereducated respondents were more unsatisfied with information and communication. Conclusions: This study reveals unexpectedly high level of satisfaction with services of study hospital, driven by quality of medical care, which masked the deficiencies in other domains. Lack of communication was leading cause for dissatisfaction followed by hospital environment, which need attention.

Keywords: Communication; Doctors; Hospital services; Parental satisfaction; Behaviour.