September 2020 Vol. 8 No.9

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Original Research Article

Care-Givers’ Perceptions to the Quality of Healthcare and Services Delivery in the Pediatric Ward of the Bamenda Regional Hospital-Cameroon

Promise Aseh Munteh^1* and Alyce Fri Fonchin²

¹Assistant Lecturer/Director of Cooperation, Catholic University of Cameroon (CATUC), Bamenda
²PhD Fellow, Department of Economics, Center of Excellence in Reproductive Health Innovation
University of Benin, Nigeria

*Corresponding Author's Email: aseh.promise@catuc.org

Received: 04 September 2020  I  Accepted: 18 September 2020  I  Published: 27 September 2020  I  Article ID: MRJMMS-20-144
Copyright © 2020 Author(s) retain the copyright of this article.
This article is published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0.

Abstract

This study aimed to evaluate health service quality in the pediatric ward of the Bamenda Regional Hospital (BRH), Cameroon, with the aim of finding out parents’/care-givers’ perceptions of healthcare service quality offered in the pediatric ward and to determine the predictors of service quality in terms of I-PAHC instrument service quality dimensions. The five dimensions considered in this study were nurses’ attitude, doctors’ attitude, pain management, ward/environmental hygiene and information communication. A cross-sectional study design was employed. The study was restricted to a sample population from the in-patient care of the pediatric ward in the BRH, Cameroon. The study’s questionnaires were completed by 78 parents/care-givers of hospitalized children to determine their perceptions to the quality of healthcare services in this ward. The data were computed into SPSS 20.0 and analyzed using univariate and linear regression model analysis. The results showed both positive and significant relationships among the service quality dimensions. The most significant correlation was between perceived quality of healthcare services and nurses’ attitude. The univariate analysis showed that 41(51.3%) of the respondents said the healthcare quality in the pediatric ward was averagely good,35(43.8%) of them were very pleased with the quality of healthcare services delivered to their children, and 62(77.5%) of them said they would recommend the pediatric ward to others. The results of the linear regression model indicated that only nurses’ attitude and pain management were significant predictors for healthcare service quality in the pediatric ward. These findings present several measurement implications of service quality in healthcare. Due to the correlation between clients’ perceptions to the quality of healthcare services and the dimensions of clients’ satisfaction, the outcome of this study is important for administrative measures in assessing service quality in hospitals.

Keywords: Quality healthcare service, Pediatric ward, Parents’/careers’ perception, clients’ satisfaction