ANTECEDENTS AND CONSEQUENCES OF QUALITY OF HEALTH CARE: A PEOPLE CENTRIC APPROACH ABSTRACT
This study explored the dynamics of quality of health care, its antecedents and outcomes using a people-centric approach. The major determinants included individual factors like ethical decision making, sensitivity to the patients, and communication skills. Organizational level factors included technology, cost, knowledge, transparency, and culture. The major consequences of the quality of health care (QHC) included organizational performance (OP) and patient satisfaction (PS). The data were collected using a structured interview schedule from 876 respondents (516 patients, 180 employees, 180 doctors and managers of hospitals) belonging to large public and private sector health care organizations. The data were subjected to differential analysis, correlation, and regression analysis to examine the hypothesized relationship amongst the variables. The results showed significant differences in the perception with regard to the quality of health care, performance and patient satisfaction between the public and private sectors. The correlation results suggest that most of the variables were positively related to the quality of health care. The MRA results suggest that individual factors (ethical decision making, communication skills, sensitivity to the patients) significantly contributed to the quality of health care. Further, organizational factors (technology, cost, transparency, knowledge, and culture) significantly contributed to the quality of health care.
Quality of health care significantly contributed to organizational performance (OP), and patient satisfaction (PS). Quality of health care partially mediated the relationship between some of the antecedent and outcome variables. The study has implications for the managers to improve the quality of health care by taking care of these factors to ensure better engagement of employees and customers along with the growth and stability of the organization and patient satisfaction. The study contributes to the literature by examining the dynamic interplay of certain factors influencing quality in health care organizations for improved organizational performance and patient satisfaction.
Keywords: Quality of health care, ethical decision making, sensitivity to the community, communication skills, technology, cost, knowledge, Organizational culture, transparency, organizational performance, patient satisfaction.
