Editorial

Citation

Downey-Ennis, K. (2011), "Editorial", International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance, Vol. 24 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijhcqa.2011.06224caa.001

Editorial

Article Type: Editorial From: International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance, Volume 24, Issue 3

It is my pleasure to bring to the readers of the International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance this issue which focuses in the main on patient satisfaction from the USA, Africa, Western Asia, Arabia and is complemented by a study on medication error reduction in Spain which also has an effect on the overall satisfaction of patients.

The quest to reach patient satisfaction is common internationally for healthcare organizations and the papers in this issue indicate to us that patients are more than happy to give their feedback given the high response rates to the reported studies. However one has to ask why reaching total patient satisfaction is such an elusive concept for many. Admittedly satisfaction is a multidimensional variable and it is interesting to note that the study reported from Kuwait found significant differences between differing nationalities of patients. I humbly suggest that any organization wishing to pursue patient satisfaction must ensure that the environment embraces a culture of quality improvement and ensures that care delivered is person centred, that all staff embrace the concept of “being in the patient’s shoes” and in so doing so will help organizations begin the road to assuring patient satisfaction. This, I acknowledge, is a major challenge but must be recognized as the bedrock of patient-centered care as Derby et al. describe as clinical business intelligence.

Clinical business intelligence which Derby et al. describe as patient satisfaction with healthcare, their physician, clinic staff and business operations was the basis of the reported research in the USA. The authors studied patient satisfaction through paper and electronic collection modes with the findings suggesting that online data collection was of higher quality concerning completeness of data and error prediction, with little evidence of response bias. This study advances knowledge by demonstrating differences in response rates, data completeness and response bias by mode of administration and is particularly relevant with the increase in use of electronic technology. However as the research was on a single clinic more research is required to validate the findings. Future research must focus on making satisfaction surveys easy for patients to complete in order to receive feedback which can assist organizations in making real improvements to increase patient satisfaction.

Nasser and Doumit’s paper outlines the findings from a study which was developed to establish a set of measurable criteria for elderly nursing homes in Lebanon. Seven main dimensions emerged from the study, however a major limitation of the study is that the elderly residents were not part of the consensus-making process, instead the main respondents were administrators, caregivers and specialists. Despite this, the identified criteria contained within the main dimensions are now in use throughout various health care organizations around the world as competency measures for accreditation and which also have the potential to be transferred into key performance standards for elderly homes.

Abekah-Nkrumah and colleagues carried out research in Ghana which examined the association between experiences during normal childbirth and satisfaction with childbirth services, with the authors arguing that while several studies have been conducted in Ghana on issues of health service satisfaction and quality their study is about the first, critically looking at satisfaction with child birth services in Ghana. The study adopted a cross-sectional analytical approach and collected data from two public hospitals in Ghana with the response rate encouraging at almost 80 per cent. The findings indicate that statistically significant associations were found between many aspects of care, indicating that there is some form of association between them and satisfaction with child birth services in two hospitals studied. Further the findings suggest that the key predictors of satisfaction are friendliness of staff, the amount of information provided on the condition and treatment of women, channels available to lodge complaints and the feeling of being treated with respect. The authors suggest that the Ministry of Health and the Ghana Health Service should as a matter of priority put in place measures and strategies to identify, develop and implement systems to promote the internalisation of and practice of good interpersonal communication skills in health facilities to address these short falls.

Ana Jimenez et al.’s contribution to this issue discusses a descriptive study with analytical components comparing medication error rates and clinical effects in three medication prescription dispensation systems traditional, single dose and electronic prescriptions in Spain. Given that medication errors are perhaps the most common adverse events found in many healthcare organisations internationally, many studies have found that computerised prescriptions appear to be the most effect method to reduce medication errors. The findings of this study found several differences between the three systems examined. Specifically global error prevalence rates were significantly higher in the traditional model than in the other two systems however most errors were detected in transcription throughout the three systems. On classification of the errors the authors found that more errors were detected in the traditional system with fewer errors in the single dose system. Despite the limitations of the current study the findings supports previous studies that electronic systems can reduce the error rate, however they are not completely free of risk.

Abdul Majeed Alhashem and colleagues empirically evaluated the factors that influence patient satisfaction in primary healthcare clinics in Kuwait. The authors quite rightly state that patient satisfaction with medical care is a multidimensional concept and is considered to be of paramount importance with respect to quality improvement programs from the patients’ perspective, total quality management, and the expected outcome of care. The authors received a high response rate to the study and found significant relationship between the nationality of patient and their overall satisfaction. The results indicate that non-Kuwaitis, particularly Asians, showed lower mean satisfaction score in comparison with Kuwaitis with the results being consistent with a number of studies conducted in the Gulf regions where the demographics are comparable. However, of interest other studies found that expatriates from different countries showed a higher satisfaction rating in comparison with nationals. A limitation of the current study is the exclusion of the private sector with recommendations made that more studies should be conducted in the primary care setting to re-examine the variables examined in the current study which have not proven to be significant and to validate the significant relationship found in this study.

Kay Downey-EnnisCo-Editor