Patient-centered communication: an extension of the HCAHPS survey

Abstract

PurposeThe Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) has been recognized as a “gold standard” set of “practical standardized measures” for assessing hospital service quality. Beginning with the HCAHPS, the purpose of this paper is to extend efforts to assess patient-centered communication (PCC) and the quality of healthcare and presents a scale for measuring patient perceptions and expectations of service quality in an emerging economy context.Design/methodology/approachA self-administered survey of patients in private hospitals (N = 171) was conducted to test the proposed framework. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were used to establish the measurement model. Multiple regression analysis was used to explain the scale's predictive ability. ANOVA was used to analyze service quality gaps and rank patients' priorities.FindingsFive components of PCC are identified. Among these, nurse affective communication has a significant positive effect on patient satisfaction. The gap analysis shows that patients have high expectations for doctors' affective communication, while they perceive a low level of service performance in the realm of nurse affective communication. The study highlights a new means of measuring “reliability” in healthcare. Important findings on patients' priorities are evaluated and discussed.Practical implicationsHealthcare organizations and practitioners can improve patient-centered care by stressing the dimensions of PCC, including clinicians' affective and instrumental communication.Originality/valueThe study expands the understanding of HCAHPS instruments in an emerging economy context and opens avenues for more widespread use of the measures. The research contributes to the literature on patient-centered care and healthcare service quality by proposing a scale for managing specific practices and interactions in healthcare.

A scale for measuring healthcare service quality incorporating patient-centred care and using a psychometric analytics framework

“…On the other hand, although recent developments in healthcare contexts increasingly emphasize patient-centred approaches to service quality measures (Islam and Muhamad, 2021;Tate et al, 2020), it is unclear how the dimensions of patient-centred care interact with standard dimensions of service quality. For example, Islam and Muhamad (2021) and Knox et al (2015) did not examine or discuss the nature of these interrelations, even though patientcentred care has been established as a critical enabler of organizational outcomes (e.g. clinical effectiveness, safety, and resource usage; Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care, 2011; Doyle et al, 2013).…”

“…, 2013). Islam and Muhamad (2021) have extended the concept of healthcare service quality by incorporating patient-centred communication. Additionally, recent studies (Behmane et al.…”

“…, 2020), it is unclear how the dimensions of patient-centred care interact with standard dimensions of service quality. For example, Islam and Muhamad (2021) and Knox et al. (2015) did not examine or discuss the nature of these interrelations, even though patient-centred care has been established as a critical enabler of organizational outcomes (e.g.…”

“…Thus, patient-centred care should place more attention on domain-specific interactions with care professionals, for example, regarding the causes and treatment of a health issue (Alamo et al, 2002;IoM, 2021;Kitson et al, 2013). Islam and Muhamad (2021) have extended the concept of healthcare service quality by incorporating patient-centred communication. Additionally, recent studies (Behmane et al, 2021;Carter et al, 2021;Jeon et al, 2010;Lin et al, 2021;Makubalo et al, 2020;Skog€ o Nyvang et al, 2019) argue that patient-centred care is needed to address current problems of poor user satisfaction, limited understanding of patient needs, lack of patient autonomy/engagement/proactivity in care and clinical services/solutions, and the dehumanization of medical care (Miles and Mezzich, 2011;Ornstein and Kay, 2021).…”

“…On the other hand, although recent developments in healthcare contexts increasingly emphasize patient-centred approaches to service quality measures (Islam and Muhamad, 2021; Tate et al. , 2020), it is unclear how the dimensions of patient-centred care interact with standard dimensions of service quality.…”