Abstract:
Background: At present in Sri Lanka, both patients and health care providers focus more
attention on the quality of care than in the past. Responsiveness, which is a quality of care
indicator, needs to be frequently evaluated and improved effectively.
Objectives: The aim of this study was to assess the patients’ perceived experience on
responsiveness at Teaching Hospital, Karapitiya (THK) with socio-demographic and service
utilization factors.
Methods: This descriptive cross sectional study included 395 inward treated patients randomly
at the time of their discharge from general surgical and medical wards. Sample size was
calculated using ‘Cochran formula’ for quantitative studies with considering probable estimation
of responsiveness as 50% and 10% of non-response rate. An interviewer administered, pre tested
and validated questionnaire was used. Questionnaire was adapted from World Health
Organizations’ Multi Country Survey Study in year 2000. Data collection was carried out during
November 2018 to January 2019. SPSS Version 23.0 was used for statistical analysis.
Results: Response rate was 93.6% (n=395). Of these participants, majority were stayed in the
hospital for 3-5 days (75.2%, n=297). Noticeably 27.1% (n=107) of respondents have stated that
they have discriminated during care. ‘Confidentiality’ was the best experienced domain with
89.6% (n=354) response rate where freedom to choose care provider was rated as worst with 0%
response rate. ‘Prompt attention’, ‘communication’ and ‘quality of basic amenities’ were
reported as most important domains. However the overall performance of responsiveness was
48.6 %.
Conclusion: Overall responsiveness was relatively low at THK. Health service users’ non health
expectations were partially met and there was a gap between their expectations and
performances of health care providers. Its needs institutional based wide attention to replenish
poorly performed domains of responsiveness and minimize discrimination through continuous
education, monitoring and evaluation programme with participation of every discipline of health
care providers in THK.