Patient Satisfaction: Comparative Study Between Pre-Hospital Accreditation and Post-Hospital Accreditation

Abstract

The patient has a legitimate role in evaluating the healthcare services provided to them; this evaluation can be measured through patient satisfaction, which is considered an effective tool to evaluate the provided services and the quality program for hospitals. This study aims to examine the association between patient satisfaction and hospital accreditation status. Cross-sectional design with a random sampling technique for adult hospitalized patients. The SERVQUAL instrument was utilized to measure the patient's satisfaction. The sample size included 800 patients from the two phases based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria. The obtained data was analyzed using SPSS version 26. The study revealed that patient satisfaction was high both before and after accreditation. The order of the patient satisfaction dimensions was as follows: assurance, reliability, tangibles, responsiveness, and empathy. The highest subscale in this phase was assurance, with a mean of (4.49), and the lowest score was empathy, with a mean of (4.25). In the pre-accreditation phase, reliability was the highest subscale, with a mean of (4.46), and the lowest score was responsiveness, with a mean of (4.13). In addition, the study revealed that there is an association between the satisfaction subscales (tangibles, responsiveness, and assurance) and accreditation status, except for reliability and empathy. The study concludes that the high level of satisfaction in the post-accreditation phase may relate to the high level of patient care standards and safety environment implemented in the hospital as requirements of accreditation, which gives evidence that the hospital accreditation status had a positive impact on patient satisfaction.

Keywords

• patient satisfaction
• accreditation status
• hospitalized patients