Factors of Patients Expectation in Hospitals: Evidence From Private and Public Sectors

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Methodology
Survey Findings Analysis
Conclusion
References

Introduction

The fact that people create a state and are the source and engine of its evolution and prosperity is rather undeniable. However, to function normally in society and contribute to its development, a person needs to be healthy, and therefore one of the most momentous purposes of the state is to maintain the health of its population. Such kind of governmental support may be provided through the healthcare system. The high quality of medical care is usually considered to be one of the most crucial outcomes of the social policy of any state at all its levels.

Moreover, it is rather challenging to imagine any other purpose of the healthcare system that would be more vital for society’s functioning. According to Luo, Liu, and Wong (2018), “patient satisfaction is crucial in the evaluation of the overall quality of care” (p. 1). Unfortunately, nowadays, it can hardly be considered to be proper and high quality in almost any country. The results of public opinion polls indicate that a sufficiently large proportion of patients are not satisfied with the medical care provided (Aliman & Mohamad, 2016). The reason for their dissatisfaction is mainly insufficient health care funding, which entails a small interest of medical personnel, low level of service in hospitals, lack of quality medicines, and lack of necessary comfort in the wards.

According to the way of governing, all hospitals can be divided into private and public ones. Any publicly managed hospital is being completely funded by the government and works exclusively with the money that taxpayers collect to finance health initiatives. Due to the fact that wages, equipment, and new institutions’ constructions are paid from the budget set by the local government, administrators have to bear the costs and offer a rather limited range of services.

Since public hospitals tend to be rather inexpensive, they are the best option for those people who are not wealthy, have limited insurance, and face difficulties while paying for the medical treatment and services themselves.

Private hospitals are managed and funded by their owner, who may be a group of people or an individual and who is responsible for financial management, budgeting, and enforcing federal regulations, state laws, and strict municipal codes. The owner also draws up contracts with doctors, hires staff, invests in maintenance, purchases equipment, and monitors the services provided. Since private hospitals are prominent for offering high-quality services, are not so limited in their budget, and provide their patients with individual care and attention, wealthy people tend to choose them (“What is the difference,” 2019). Also, waiting times in patient queues are minimized, because the number of people per medic is small.

Nowadays, the world’s population is growing rapidly, and people live longer, respectively, the demand for medical care is also increasing. This fact places additional demands on healthcare, especially in public and private hospitals, and makes it compulsory to obtain new ways of improving the care, time, and cost of providing medical services. In the healthcare field, expectation describes a patient’s belief or hope of what he or she will face during a consultation or treatment.

This is a mental picture of how patients will interact with the healthcare system, whether public or private. The purpose of this paper is to gather some information to evaluate the comprehensive relationship between patients’ expectations and four factors of health care service in two Saudi public and private hospitals. Also, the aim is to analyze it, compare the statistics, and get an understanding of whether patients are satisfied with the medical treatment or not.

Methodology

In this study, the problem of the healthcare system not being able to meet the patients’ needs and demands, and people getting dissatisfied with the quality of the hospitals’ services was investigated. Data for this study was collected in King Khaled Eye Specialist Hospital, a public hospital, and Sulaiman Al-Habib, a private hospital, using a survey of fifty patients from these two medical facilities. All fifty people were randomly selected and were patients in one of the hospitals:

Twenty-five patients in the King Khaled Specialized Eye Hospital (as a public hospital).
Twenty-five patients in Suleiman Al-Habib (as a private hospital).

To compile this study, some data were collected, analyzed, and then entered into four tables. To make sure that the gathered statistics are reliable and trustworthy, it was decided to interview the patients of all age groups, genders, and Saudi and non-Saudi nationalities in both private and public hospitals. Questionnaires were chosen as a method for gathering the necessary information and distributed between the fifty patients, so they could read the statements and choose one of the five proposed answers: strongly agree, agree, undecided, disagree, and strongly disagree. In both hospitals, public and private, four factors were examined: registration, environment, physician and staff, and support services.

Registration in this study refers to the availability of the hospitals to their patients and the simplicity and accuracy of their entry into the system. The environment refers to comfortable wards and beds, good bathrooms, air conditioning, cleaning, various amenities, and food. When collecting data for the physician and staff table, it was decided to consider all aspects of the interaction between patients and doctors, and nurses from medical and non-medical points of view.

Hence, such factors as the willingness of medics to respond to all the questions of the patients, give them the necessary information, be polite, and provide emotional care were analyzed. For the staff support columns, it was examined how patients in both private and public sectors received medical support during treatment, were given medication, and were tested.

Table 1: Demographic Data of the Samples from the Government Hospital.

Category		Frequency	Percent
Age Group	Less than 20	1	4
	21-25	4	16
	26-30	6	24
	31-35	5	20
	Above 35	9	36
	Total	25	100
Gender	Male	13	52
	Female	12	48
	Total	25	100
Nationality	Saudi	24	96
	Non -Saudi	1	4
	Total	25	100

Table 2: Patients’ Satisfactions in a Government Hospital.

Category	Strongly Agree	Agree	Undecided	Disagree	Strongly Disagree
Registration
1. The registration process was Easy	20%	76%	4%	0%	0%
2. Staff at the registration desk were courteous and friendly	20%	48%	28%	4%	0%
3. My waiting time for the service was acceptable	20%	48%	20%	12%	0%
4. Communications about any delays were in a timely manner	4%	52%	28%	16%	0%
The Environment
5. Room & bed linens were clean and in tidy	40%	56%	0%	4%	0%
6. The waiting area was clean & with comfortable chairs	36%	60%	4%	0%	0%
7. The air condition in the waiting area and clinic is adequate	44%	48%	8%	0%	0%
8. The Parking was easy to reach and near to the facility	8%	40%	8%	36%	8%
Physicians & Staff
9. The Physicians & Staff were courteous and friendly	20%	56%	24%	0%	0%
10. I got a full Explanations about my condition from the physician	28%	64%	0%	4%	4%
11. The Physician’s involved me in decisions about my treatment	20%	56%	20%	0%	4%
12. I received full Information about my medications (if any) at the pharmacy	8%	76%	8%	8%	0%
Support services
13. The blood sample drawing process at the lab was easy	20%	64%	16%	0%	0%
14. Waiting time to do an X-ray was acceptable	8%	44%	16%	32%	0%
15. It didn’t take me long to dispense my medication	16%	56%	12%	16%	0%
16. All medications that I need are available each time	28%	48%	12%	8%	4%

Table 3: Demographic Data of the Samples from the Private Hospital.

Category		Frequency	Percent
Age Group	Less than 20	2	8
	21-25	4	16
	26-30	7	28
	31-35	6	24
	Above 35	6	24
	Total	25	100
Gender	Male	13	52
	Female	12	48
	Total	25	100
Nationality	Saudi	25	100
	Non -Saudi	0	0
	Total	25	100

Table 4: Patients’ Satisfactions in a Private Hospital.

Category	Strongly Agree	Agree	Undecided	Disagree	Strongly Disagree
Registration
1. The registration process was Easy	8%	56%	16%	20%	0%
2. Staff at the registration desk were courteous and friendly	36%	56%	4%	4%	0%
3. My waiting time for the service was acceptable	8%	52%	20%	16%	4%
4. Communications about any delays were in a timely manner	8%	60%	20%	12%	0%
The Environment
5. Room & bed linens were clean and in tidy	28%	48%	8%	16%	0%
6. The waiting area was clean & with comfortable chairs	24%	28%	32%	12%	4%
7. The air condition in the waiting area and clinic is adequate	12%	56%	16%	12%	4%
8. The Parking was easy to reach and near to the facility	16%	36%	16%	16%	16%
Physicians & Staff
9. The Physicians & Staff were courteous and friendly	32%	52%	16%	0%	0%
10. I got a full Explanations about my condition from the physician	24%	56%	12%	4%	4%
11. The Physician’s involved me in decisions about my treatment	32%	48%	8%	12%	0%
12. I received full Information about my medications (if any) at the pharmacy	44%	48%	4%	4%	0%
Support services
13. The blood sample drawing process at the lab was easy	48%	44%	8%	0%	0%
14. Waiting time to do an X-ray was acceptable	40%	48%	8%	4%	0%
15. It didn’t take me long to dispense my medication	12%	48%	16%	20%	4%
16. All medications that I need are available each time	20%	44%	16%	20%	0%

Survey Findings Analysis

After analyzing and comparing the results from the tables, it was possible to come to some conclusions. The registration process in the government hospital may be considered to be better and easier than in the private hospital, and the reason for such a statement may be realized while comparing the numbers from both tables. In the first table, there are more people who chose either “strongly agree” or “agree” and fewer of those who chose “disagree” and “strongly disagree.” Also, as for the environment, the public hospital wins again as there are many more patients who were satisfied with the conditions and much fewer of those who were not or chose “undecided.”

As for the physicians and staff column, there are a little more both contented and dissatisfied patients from the private hospital, so it is probably fair to state that this factor is the same in both hospitals. Finally, the last column demonstrates that the patients from the public hospital are more disappointed with the support services than those from the private one.

Conclusion

To draw a conclusion, one may say that healthcare is indeed one of the most vital systems in any country, which, unfortunately, needs some improvements. There is an opinion that people prefer going to private hospitals as they believe that the quality of treatment there is higher than in the public ones. However, this survey demonstrates that public hospitals are in no way inferior to private hospitals since the tables did not show a large gap in satisfied and dissatisfied patients from both sectors. Therefore, some severe improvements need to happen in the whole healthcare system in order to make people healthier and happier and meet patients’ expectations more often.

References

Aliman, N. K., & Mohamad, W. N. (2016). Linking service quality, patients’ satisfaction and behavioral intentions: an investigation on private healthcare in Malaysia. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 224, 141-148.

Luo, J. Y. N., Liu, P. P., & Wong, M. C. M. (2018). Patients’ satisfaction with dental care: a qualitative study to develop a satisfaction instrument. BMC Oral Health, 18(1), 1-10. Web.

What is the difference between a public and private hospital? (2019). Web.

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Factors of Patients Expectation in Hospitals: Evidence From Private and Public Sectors

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