Customer Care In Ghanaian Hospitals - Dissertation Example

Customer Care In Ghanaian Hospitals Abstract The main problem investigated in the study was the issue of customer satisfaction among university hospitals in Ghana. The problem was necessitated by the important role that customer satisfaction has been noted to play in the overall public health delivery system. As part of this, the study was undertaken with the purpose of investigating existing levels of customer satisfaction at the university hospitals in Ghana so that based on what is known to exist there could be recommendations on how to improve them. To do this, a mixed research method made up of the use of both quantitative and qualitative data collection procedures was employed. Quantitatively, patients of the hospital were given questionnaire to respond to. The questionnaire contained questions that bordered on several areas of customer care services and practices including the environment of the hospitals, the hospital premises, the staff of the hospitals, and the facilities available at the hospitals. Qualitatively, staff and other stakeholders of the hospitals were engaged in an interview where they gave a professional perspective to the issue of customer care at the university hospitals in Ghana. On a generalised view, the results that were gathered have showed that there is high level of customer satisfaction at the university hospitals in Ghana. This line of result was agreed by both patients and staff. However, some core areas of customer satisfaction where it was expected that there would be a balance between practice and what is currently accepted as best practice was found to be lacking. Example of this has to do with the use of information technology in reaching out to customers and creating a virtual healthcare system. Based on the findings, it has been recommended on the need for the university hospitals to ensure that the customer service practice they render become those that will match current needs of the globalised health sector. 5.6 Staff and other stakeholders’ views on customer care It would be noted that for greater part of the discussion that was performed, the researcher looked at the results that were produced from questionnaire distributed to patients of the hospital on their views and perspective on customer care practiced within the university hospitals in Ghana. In this section of the discussion, the researcher takes a look at the qualitative results that were produced from staff and other stakeholders of the hospital through an interview that was conducted among these stakeholders. The rationale for this component of data collection and discussion was to have a professional perspective on customer care as a tool among university hospitals in Ghana. This is because most of the other parts of the discussion looked at what the patients perceived as lay people and from their opinions as customers of the hospitals. 5.6.1 Patient-Staff ratio As far as customer care practices are concerned, the first area of concern was for the researcher to ask for the opinion of the staff and stakeholders on the patient-staff ratio at the various university hospitals. In Westaway, Rheeder, Van Zyl and Seager (2003), it was observed that patient-staff ratio is a major factor that influences the outcomes with medical care given to customers in any health setup. This is because the better the ratio, the more guaranteed that each patient will have sufficient time being spent on them by staff in rendering care. But where few staff members are serving a lot of patients, chances that each patient will get customized or premium treatment are lower. Unfortunately, the latter scenario was what was noticed from the interview with the staff and stakeholders. This is because when asked to rate the level of how favourable the existing situation was using scale from 1 to 5, the mean score was only 2.8 for patient-staff ratio. This means that the patient-staff ratio among the university hospitals is relatively no favourable. This situation can be related to a long standing problem with the training of health workers in Ghana, particularly, the training of doctors. Woodbury, Tracey and McNight (2008) lamented that year in and out, Ghana has had to rely on expatriate health workers, particularly from Cuba and Nigeria because of lower numbers of graduating doctors and specialists from the country’s health training facilities. 5.6.2 Medical facilities and drug supplies The availability of medical facilities and drug supplies happen to be another factor that directly affects the delivery of customer care practice at the university hospitals. This is because even when the patient-staff ratio is favourable and there is lack of medical facilities and drug supplies, there is very little that the staff can do in helping patients overcome their health problems (Pilpel, 2006). It was for this reason that this particular line of data was collected. From the response given by the staff and other stakeholders, it was realised that there was a relatively higher scoring for this sub-theme, meaning that the university hospitals have medical facilities and drug supplies. This is a very impressive and comforting line of result. This is because in the literature review, it was established that the presence of sufficient medical facilities and drug supplies can be a major motivation for the staff to deliver their roles, even as the staffs are confronted with low patient-staff ratio (Westaway, Rheeder, Van Zyl and Seager, 2003). In Ghana, active involvement by non-governmental and charity agencies in the provision of medical facilities and drug supplies can be attributed to the favourable medical facilities and drug supplies. This is because most of these agencies see the need to provide the medical facilities, particularly the university hospitals with equipment and structures as part of their social responsibility. 5.6.3 Customer Care Practices When it comes to customer care practices that are currently implemented by the university hospitals, the responses that came from the staff and other stakeholders showed a highly favourable situation. This is because the mean score was 3.39 out of 5. Meanwhile, there was extensive literature reviewed on how important customer care practices are to the direct outcome with medical interventions. For example, Silber, Rosenbaum and Ross (2005) argued that where there is sufficient customer care practices, patients feel at ease sharing the details with their problems with the staff because of the confidence that these problems will be addressed with all the seriousness it deserves. Meanwhile, apart from the diagnoses that medical equipment can make for patients, a lot also depend on the level of information that the staffs have to execute the right form of intervention for the patients (Veillard et al., 2005). The fact that the staff and other stakeholders score the customer care practices of their hospitals as favourable can therefore be said to be a positive development that will not only help the patients but also help the staff in making them more effective and efficient in the delivery of their work. It is therefore expected that the university hospitals in Ghana will continue to maintain such levels of customer care practices that have been rendered as highly favourable. 5.6.4 Waiting Time Because most medical conditions are considered as emergency situations, the waiting time that is involved in the delivery of care is very important in any given medical setup. It was for this reason that the opinions of the staff and the other stakeholders with regards to waiting time were measured. From the measure, it was noted that the mean score out of 5.0 was only 2.8. This shows a high level of waiting time being unfavourable for the staff and the other stakeholders. The implication of this line of data is that at the university hospitals in Ghana, patients are made to wait for very long hours before they can receive treatment. This is a situation that can directly hamper the ideology of primary healthcare because it stands the chance of discouraging people from visiting the hospital when they feel their conditions are only minor (Silber, Rosenbaum and Ross, 2005). For such people, there is greater possibility that they would resort to self medication and the use of over the counter drugs in treating their illnesses. Meanwhile, these are practices that cannot be accepted as appropriate in any typical medical situation. Relating this line of data to what was collected earlier on patient-staff ratio, it can be said that one critical situation that has resulted in longer waiting time is the fact that there are always more patients to be attended to by the fewer staff members. 5.6.5 Attitude of patients As patients were made to critique the experience and skills of staff, so were the staff made to critique the attitude of patients. This is because the medical health delivery system is a shared practice where there ought to be maximum cooperation from all stakeholders to ensure success. From the assessment of the staff and other stakeholders, it was noted that the attitude of patients was generally unfavourable. This means that patients do not show sufficient acts of cooperation with the staff members. Their attitude can also be said to contain acts of disrespect and low courtesy. These are indeed things that should be seen as a source of worry for the university hospitals in Ghana. This is because the continuation of such actions can create a major disconnect between the staff and patients, leading to breakdown in organisational behaviour (Hekkert et al., 2009). In such a situation where there is breakdown in organisational behaviour, patients are likely to be the worst affected people because they may be denied their basic right to healthcare. It is therefore expected that the form of relationship that exists between staff and patients will be improved. Nuti, Bonini, Murante and Vainieri (2009) recommended the use of patient education modules by the hospitals in achieving such a goal where the patients can be trained on the best ways they are to relate with the staff at the hospitals. 5.6.6 Relevance of Customer Care In literature, several researchers supported the opinion that customer care in the health sector was a very relevant practice that promoted public health care. In the light of this, the researcher became concerned with measuring the opinions and ideas of staff and other stakeholders who were at the helm of affairs at the various university hospitals in Ghana in knowing their opinions on the relevance of customer care. From the statistical outcome produce, this was one area with the highest scoring means of 4.12 out of 5.0. This means that the staff and other stakeholders regarded the need for customer care very highly. In such a situation, Jenkinson, Coulter and Bruster (2002) noted that there can be a direct benefit on patients because the mere acknowledgement by the staff on the need and relevance of customer care means that staff will be ready to implement the various customer care practices that have been institutionalised within their means. Pilpel (2006) on the other hand recommended the need for ensuring that there are forms of motivation institutionalised by the hospitals to ensure that staff will continue to feel encouraged on the need to continuing with customer care practices. From this, it would be noted that it is not just enough to have high score on relevance of customer care because in the absence of motivation, the staff may not put their convictions to practice. 5.6.7 Management seriousness in customer care issues As it was rightly stated above, the staffs of the hospitals are not the only people expected to champion the course for the implementation of customer care practices at the hospitals. Because of this, the researcher also focused on the role that management of the university hospitals in Ghana play as part of customer care issues. Here, the staff and other stakeholders were asked to critique the management seriousness in customer care issues. From the responses gathered, it can be gathered that the university hospitals attach much seriousness to customer care issues as over 85% of respondents agreed to this. This line of results has a lot of positive implication for public health care in Ghana. Particularly, Woodbury, Tracey and McNight (2008) emphasised that where management show commitment towards customer care issues, chances that customer care outcomes will be rated highly are high. This is because the management have often been responsible for several components of the customer care practices including the need to approve budget for innovations that promote and enhance customer care practices (Brown, Sandoval and Murray, 2008). Again, it is likely to see a hospital with management seriousness in customer care issues teaming up with other stakeholders to bring about the successful implementation of customer care programs. What is more, Hekkert et al. (2009) noted that such management with seriousness to customer care issues will readily sanction staff that does not seem to attach the necessary seriousness to customer care issues. 5.6.8 Stakeholder involvement Most of the university hospitals in Ghana have other stakeholders who are not directly involved in the day to day management and administration of the hospitals. The fact that these stakeholders may be distant from the hospitals however does not mean that the roles they have to play in the hospitals can be overlooked. Nuti, Bonini, Murante and Vainieri (2009) actually stressed that stakeholder involvement serves as a major form of check and balance for ensuring that those stakeholders within the hospitals go about their roles in manners that are expected and acceptable. Knowing this, the researcher made the staff and other stakeholders give account of the extent of stakeholder involvement in their hospitals. In this, the results gathered indicated that there was a mixed reaction on stakeholder involvement. This is because whereas 51% of respondents were pleased with stakeholder involvement, 49% were not pleased. There is a long term impact of this situation on the university hospitals, particularly when it comes to customer care practices. For example, Veillard et al. (2005) mentioned that most external stakeholders are policy implementers and law enforcers who must be concerned about the welfare of customers and champion customer care practices. This means that when there is low involvement by such people, the likelihood that they will play their roles as expected to bring about the needed form of customer satisfaction may be lacking (Brown, Sandoval and Murray, 2008). 5.6.9 Satisfactory customer care services Respondents were made to finalise their opinions by rating how satisfactory the customer care services at the hospitals were. Even though 70% were pleased, the number of those who were not pleased, and as represented by 30% of staff and other stakeholders can be said to be an alarming figure. This calls for the need for there to be more efforts put into the existing state of customer care services at the various university hospitals in Ghana. As noted in literature, this is the only means by which there can be safe guarantee for patient on receiving excellent health care. The call for there to be the blocking of any loopholes that prevents the satisfaction levels for customer care services to reach 90% among the staff and other stakeholders must be addressed with all the urgency that is required. By addressing these issues, patients and their rights will be what will be promoted in the very long term (Jenkinson, Coulter and Bruster, 2002). References Brown A.D., Sandoval G.A., Murray M. (2008), Comparing patient reports about hospital care across a Canadian – US border, International Journal for quality in Health Care; Vol. 20 (2): pp. 95 – 104. Hekkert K.D., Cihangir S., Kleefstra S.M., Van den Berg B., Kool R.B. (2009), Patient satisfaction revisited: a multilevel approach. Social Science & Medicine; 69:68-75. Jenkinson C., Coulter A., Bruster S. (2002), The picker patient experience questionnaire: development and validation using data from in-patient surveys in five countries. Int J Qual Health care; 14: 353 – 358. Nuti S., Bonini A., Murante A.M., Vainieri M. (2009), Performance assessment in the maternity pathway in Tuscany Region, Health Service Management Research, Vol.22, pp115-121. Pilpel D. (2006), Hospitalized patients’ satisfaction with caregivers’ conduct and physical surroundings. J Gen Intern Med; Vol. 11: 312–14 Silber J.H., Rosenbaum P.R. and Ross R.N. (2005), Comparing the contributions of groups of predictors: which outcomes vary with hospital rather than patient characteristics? J Am Stat Ass; 90: 7-17. Veillard J., Champagne F., Klazinga N., Kazandjian V., Arah O. A., Guisset A. L. (2005), A performance assessment framework for hospitals: the WHO regional office for Europe PATH project. International Journal for Quality in Health Care, 17 (6): 487-496. Westaway M. S., Rheeder P., Van Zyl D. G., Seager J. R. (2003), Interpersonal and organizational dimensions of patient satisfaction: the moderating effects of health status. International Journal for Quality in Health, Vol. 15 (4): 337 – 344. Woodbury D., Tracey D. and McNight E. (2008), Does considering severity of illness improve interpretation of patient satisfaction data? J Health Care Qual; Vol. 20: 33- 40. Read More