A tool to assess the quality perception of healthcare employees

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this project was to determine the validity and reliability of the Healthcare Quality Perception (HQP) questionnaire tool designed to capture employees' perceptions of healthcare quality in Indian hospitals.Design/methodology/approachTwo hundred employees in private and public sector hospitals in India were randomly selected and given the HQP tool. It consisted of 38 Likert-scale items and six different subscales: (1) Planning and Documentation (n = 7); (2) Employee Participation in Quality Management Activities (n = 5); (3) Existence of Policies/Procedures/Guidelines (n = 5); (4) Quality and Patient Safety Management (n = 9); (5) Perceived Effect of Quality Improvement (n = 7) and (6) Training and Development Opportunities (n = 5). 156 completed questionnaires were received, demonstrating a 78% response rate. HQP tool subjected to statistical analysis to measure its reliability and validity. A p-value of less than 0.05 was considered as “significant.”FindingsFactor analysis pulled out six factors that conjointly demonstrated 66.4 % of the variance in healthcare professionals' (HCPs') perception of healthcare service quality in selected Indian hospitals. The overall Cronbach's alpha coefficient was measured at 0.959 for internal consistency reliability. This study demonstrates that the identified six critical factors are important determinants influencing HCPs' perception of the quality of healthcare services in private and public sector hospitals in India.Originality/valueThis study provides evidence for the reliability and validity of the newly developed HCP Scale for the assessment of employee perception of the quality of services offered in selected hospitals in India, with potential applications in other contexts.

The assessment of quality of care in the Indian healthcare industry: the employees’ and patients’ perspectives

“…As Kamalasanan et al (2020) say, there are disparities in the quality priorities set by service providers and the expectations of patients for high-quality medical care. Taking the researchers' call to consider both the parties' perspectives on quality delivery, authors have analysed the patients and the healthcare providers' perceptions of healthcare quality indicators which resulted in understanding the existing state of healthcare service quality in the Indian private tertiary care hospitals.…”

“…As Kamalasanan et al. (2020) say, there are disparities in the quality priorities set by service providers and the expectations of patients for high-quality medical care.…”

“…In a study conducted by Kieft et al (2014), many issues have been identified as impediments to nurses' efforts to improve patient perceptions of the quality of nursing care. Kamalasanan et al (2020) opined that apart from obtaining patients' views, it is also important from a managerial standpoint to investigate employees' views as they are the process owners of quality management. Therefore, authors demonstrate that it is equally important to capture employee perspectives along with the patients.…”

“…And, the necessary improvements and changes in medical care systems should be made based on an understanding of the customers' needs (Gavahi et al, 2023). Understanding how employees who deal with daily management issues see things may help quality managers pay attention to issues that impede quality improvement (Kamalasanan et al, 2020). Also, healthcare sector requires innovations to be made at frequent intervals in order to remain competitive, cost-effective and up to date (Sindhwani et al, 2022).…”

How the use of an online healthcare community affects the doctor-patient relationship: An empirical study in China

“…For example: using an online healthcare community is convenient for patients, increasing their emotional dependence ( 26 ). In addition, the use of an online healthcare community improves patient experience by reducing patient costs, thus affecting patients’ perception of healthcare quality ( 27 ). From this discussion, this paper proposes the following hypotheses:…”