Risk Management and Healthcare Policy (Nov 2020)
Awareness, Intention to Act and Action in the Exercising of Patients’ Rights: A Case Study of Patients in Khmer Soviet Friendship Hospital, Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Abstract
Borey Ban,1,2 Tipaporn Kanjanarach,3 Sutin Chanaboon4 1Technical School for Medical Care, University of Health Sciences, Phnom Penh, Cambodia; 2Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Khon Kaen University, Khon Kaen 40002, Thailand; 3Department of Social and Administrative Pharmacy and Center for Research and Development of Herbal Health Product, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Khon Kaen University, Khon Kaen 40002, Thailand; 4Department of Community Health, Sirindhorn College of Public Health Khon Kaen, Khon Kaen 40000, ThailandCorrespondence: Tipaporn Kanjanarach Department of Social and Administrative Pharmacy and Center for Research and Development of Herbal Health Product, Faculty of Pharmaceutical SciencesKhon Kaen University, Khon Kaen 40002, ThailandTel +66 81 739 2822Fax +66 043 202 379Email [email protected] and Objectives: In Cambodia, the patients’ rights guideline was officially released in 2007 as a measure of the government policy to promote greater awareness and empower Cambodian people to exercise their rights as patients. The aim of this study was to identify the proportion of patients aware of the existence of patients’ rights and compare the proportions of patients intending to exercise their rights and those actually exercising their rights among the aware and unaware groups.Methods: Data were collected with a structured questionnaire, using face-to-face interview technique, from 142 randomly selected outpatients visiting the Khmer Soviet Friendship Hospital in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Intention to exercise patients’ rights was measured on a 5-point Likert scale (ranging from 1 “definitely not” to 5 “definitely yes”).Results: The proportion of Cambodian patients who were aware of the existence of patients’ rights was 31.0% (95% CI: 23.5, 39.3). The average intention to act scores was 4.0± 0.5 for the whole group, and 4.3± 0.4 and 3.9± 0.5 for those aware and unaware of the existence of patients’ rights, respectively. The difference in the mean scores of intentions to act between the aware and unaware groups was statistically significant (mean difference =0.40, 95% CI: 0.22, 0.58, t140=4.514, P< 0.001). Patients reported a total of 250 situations in which they believed they should take action to exercise their rights and 96 times that they took action (38.4%, 95% CI: 35.46, 41.34).Conclusion: The proportion of Cambodian outpatients aware of the existence of patients’ rights and the proportion of outpatients that exercised their rights were both low. Nevertheless, it appeared that raising awareness of the existence of patients’ rights raised patient’s intention to act, which corresponds to the hierarchy-of-effects behavioral model.Keywords: patients’ rights, human rights, equality, confidentiality, privacy, health care services
