Utilization of day surgery services at upper hill medical centre and the Karen hospital in Nairobi: the influence of medical providers, cost and patient awareness

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: health systems face challenges of improving access to health services due to rising health care costs. Innovative services such as day surgery would improve service delivery. Day surgery is a concept where patients are admitted for surgical procedures and discharged the same day. Though used widely in developed countries due to its advantages, utilization in developing countries has been low. This study sought to establish how utilization of day surgery services are influenced by medical providers, patient awareness and cost among other factors. METHODS: the study design was cross sectional with self administered questionnaires used to collect data. Data analysis was done using statistical package for social science (SPSS) and presented as frequencies, percentages and Spearman's correlation to establish relationship among variables. RESULTS: medical providers included doctors, their employees and medical insurance providers. Most doctors are aware of day surgery services but their frequency of utilization is low. Furthermore, medical insurance providers approve only half of the requests for day surgery. Doctors' employees are aware of the services and most of them would recommend it to patients. Although, most patients are not aware of day surgery services those who are aware would prefer day surgery to in patient. Moreover, doctors and medical insurance providers consider day surgery to be cheaper than in patient. CONCLUSION: the study showed that medical providers and patient awareness have influence over day surgery utilization, though, cost alone does not influence day surgery utilization but as a combination with other factors.

Keywords

• day surgery
• health system
• medical providers
• medical insurance providers
• in patient
• patient awareness
• cost and utilization