Healthcare Administration Capstone Assignment Assignment is Broken down over 10 weeks. Please see attached for details and dates. Would like help with the entire paper so, I need one awesome tutor t

Findings Template

Rhonda Scott

A Capstone Presented in Partial Fulfillment

of the Requirements for the Degree

Master of Healthcare Administration

PURDUE UNIVERSITY GLOBAL

July 2019

The following section will discuss the use and applications of findings, and recommendations of the research. The problem of the study was to find out the influencers on patient satisfaction in healthcare facilities. The research was conducted at Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore. As pointed out by ( Creel et al., 2002) most patients have a negative perception that healthcare centers are unfriendly and very scary places to be. This may explain the reason why many people fail to seek healthcare services when they are unwell until the situation deteriorates. The negative perception pointed by Creel et al. , can be changed through good patient experience which aim achieving patient satisfaction (Nazarko, 2007). For the study to fully explore the influencers on patient satisfaction in healthcare facilities, the research was guided by three research questions; which demographic factors of a physician influence patient satisfaction in Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore? How does the demographic factors of patient perceive healthcare service satisfaction offered at Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore? How the geographical location of healthcare facility influences patient satisfaction?

The use and application of these findings may contribute to healthcare facilities by identifying inadequacies that may exist in relation to patient satisfaction. The management of the facilities will benefit from the recommendation that the study will provide and they may adopt them to improve on patient satisfaction. This study will also be relevant by providing important information to the healthcare providers about how patients perceive the services to be offered at the facilities. This will make the management to make necessary adjustments to ensure services offered meet the expectations of the patients.

Policy makers in health sector will find this study beneficial by obtaining information about patient satisfaction and the factors that influence patient satisfaction. The policy makers may use the recommendation to make appropriate variations in healthcare policies which will be beneficial to all healthcare facilities on ways to make patients satisfied. As pointed on the study, many patients have negative perception about healthcare facilities. The study will assist policy makers to make policies that will aim at changing the negative perception and formulate ways to increase patient interaction and consequently, increasing patient satisfaction.

Further, this study will be beneficial to the academia world by bridging the gap that may exist on influencers of patient satisfaction in healthcare facilities. The study will also add to the existing knowledge about patient satisfaction. Therefore, the study will be used as reference material to researchers who will explore the same topic further. Moreover, this study will form a basis for future further research on the areas the study has not adequately handled. Those areas will be used by researchers as existing gap in knowledge that will need to be filled .

Recommendation: Healthcare facilities to engage more young physicians and the older to work on referrals. One of the question on the study was to find out the demographic factors of physician that influence patient satisfaction. It is common to find a report of great satisfaction when a patient is attended to by physicians who were within the age of 30s and 40s and less to those in 50s (Woodard et al., 2012). Young physicians are quick in responding to a patient as compared to older physicians. Therefore, it will be prudent if the task of attending patients were left on the hands of the young physicians.

It is important to point out that the old physicians, who are seen to be slow in attending to patients, have immense experience. It will be a waste of human resource and inhuman if the older physicians will be retired based on this premise. As an alternative, they should be elevated as senior practitioners who will offer services where the young physicians find it challenging. The older physician will play a role of mentoring the young physicians. In this model, the level of patient satisfaction will increase tremendously in healthcare facilities.

It is common to find physicians who are at the age of 50s available in healthcare facilities as compared to those in their 60s but the physicians who are between the years of 30s and 40s being readily available (Woodard et al., 2012). Based on this fact, the physicians who are within 30s and 40s should work daily but adhering to shift program that is in place. The physicians who are 50s and 60s, who will be elevated as senior physicians, will be given specific days in a week when they will report to the healthcare facility and attend to referrals cases. Although they should be readily available when called upon due to issues like emergencies. It is important to note that these changes if not well implemented, it may lead to breakdown on healthcare system and the result will dissatisfaction of patients. Proper training and consultation is required before implementation.

Recommendation: Healthcare facilities to take time to enlighten community on healthcare system. How the demographic factors of patients perceive healthcare services was the second research question. The perception of patients on the services they will receive vary from one group of patients to another (Cleary & Edgman, 1997). Patients have their expectations when they seek healthcare services from healthcare facilities. What they perceive and the actual service they receive can be totally different and therefore, it necessary for healthcare facilities to take time and allocate resources to enlighten patients on the systems of healthcare facilities, services they offer and to what extent they can offer a particular service.

There is a perception that aged patients are more satisfied with the services they receive at healthcare facilities as compared to young people. The reason behind this perception is that old people are familiar with the processes at the healthcare facilities. They are aware of any potential shortcoming of the service they receive and therefore, their expectation is nearly to the actual service they receive. On the contrary, young people are not familiar with the processes at healthcare facility. Therefore, their perception is high and when service received is below the perceived one, the young patients get dissatisfaction.

The level of education of patients has a direct correlation to patient satisfaction. Patients with high levels of education are likely to be more satisfied with services they receive at healthcare facilities as compared to patients who have lower education qualification. High level of education make a person to be more informed and therefore, their perception is relative to actual service received. It will be prudent for healthcare facilities to educate the community in general on what they can offer and possible shortcoming of the care services.

Recommendation: Establishment of additional healthcare facilities in urban areas. The geographical location of a health care facility will influence patient satisfaction. Urban areas tend to have large populations as compared to rural areas. Due to large population in urban areas, healthcare facilities in those areas tend to receive many patients. The patients spend more time on waiting lines to be served. This makes patients feel the services in the facility is dissatisfactory. To reduce the congestion on urban healthcare facilities, more facilities are required so as to reduce time spent waiting to be attended by the physician.

Healthcare facilities in urban areas is where mostly medical students are attached to for practical learning. Since the students are attached in every section and more time required for students to learn the practical concepts, the speed at which patients are served is slowed down leading to patients regarding the services as poor. To address this challenge, more facilities are required in urban areas. Arrangement can also be made to send medical students to rural facilities. This will not only achieve for fair distribution of students for efficient learning but also making patients to reduce time spend waiting to be served by the physician.

There exist a perception among people that healthcare facilities found in urban areas are well equipped and have specialized physicians and therefore services offered are of high quality. This notion drives rural patients to seek services at urban areas without referrals leading to further straining of the limited resources at urban healthcare facilities. To address this perennial challenge, the government should equip local centers with appropriate equipment and physicians. This way the population travelling to urban areas to seek high quality healthcare facilities will be reduced since same services will be offered at rural facility. Accessing quality and timely healthcare services will lead to patient satisfaction and a health nation (Peck, 2011).

References

Cleary, D. and Edgman, S. (1997). Healthcare Quality. Incorporating Consumer Perspective. JAMA, 278, 1608-1612.

Creel, L., Sass, J. and Yinger, N. (2002). Client-centered quality: clients’ perspectives and barriers to receiving care. New Perspectives on Quality of Care, 13(5), 385-390.

Nazarko, L. (2007). Bathing Patients with care and dignity. British Journal of Health Care Assistants, 1(2), 73-76.

Peck, B. M. (2011). Age related difference in doctor patient interaction and patient satisfaction. Curr Gerontal Geriatr Res, 137, 492-501.

Woodard, M., Susan, M., Havercamp, PhD., Kira, K. and Elizabeth, A. (2012). An innovative clerkship module focused on patients. Acad Med. Journal, 87(4):537-542.