IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v20y2023i6p4720-d1090391.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Determinants of Patient-Perceived Primary Healthcare Quality in Lithuania

Author

Listed:
  • Vaida Servetkienė

    (Health Research Laboratory, Mykolas Romeris University, 08303 Vilnius, Lithuania)

  • Roma Puronaitė

    (Vilnius University Hospital Santaros Klinikos, 08406 Vilnius, Lithuania)

  • Birutė Mockevičienė

    (Health Research Laboratory, Mykolas Romeris University, 08303 Vilnius, Lithuania)

  • Karolis Ažukaitis

    (Vilnius University Hospital Santaros Klinikos, 08406 Vilnius, Lithuania
    Clinic of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, Vilnius University, 03101 Vilnius, Lithuania)

  • Danguolė Jankauskienė

    (Health Research Laboratory, Mykolas Romeris University, 08303 Vilnius, Lithuania)

Abstract

Patient-centered care is considered to be one of the essential pillars of a modern healthcare system. Thus, quality assessment based on patients’ perceptions, views and experiences in their journey through the healthcare system is recognized as one of the key principles for quality improvement initiatives. Measuring patient satisfaction can be confounded by expectations and prior experiences, which can be at least partly overcome by evaluating patient-perceived healthcare quality (PPHQ). Understanding the principal constituents of PPHQ may aid healthcare professionals and decision makers in the healthcare management process and help in creating instruments to meaningfully measure patient feedback. Herein, we aimed to analyze the primary determinants of PPHQ and their interactions, with a focus on patient experiences and healthcare accessibility, using the example of Lithuanian primary healthcare. For this purpose, we conducted a cross-sectional representative telephone survey that included a total of 1033 respondents (48% male) who had encountered primary healthcare during last 3 years. Survey questions consisted of sociodemographic characteristics, patient perceptions of healthcare service provision, patient experiences, self-reported health status and overall PPHQ ranked with a 5-point Likert scale as the primary outcome. The classification-regression tree (CRT) technique was used to analyze the relationship between different explanatory variables and PPHQ, as well as their relative importance and interactions. The majority of respondents (89%) evaluated PPHQ as acceptable or good. CRT analysis identified staff behavior, organizational accessibility and financial accessibility as the most important factors affecting PPHQ. Importantly, the latter factors surpassed the effect of other known PPHQ determinants, such as sociodemographic characteristics or health status. Further analysis has revealed that the relative importance of staff behavior, including understanding, attention and empathy, increased when more problems with organizational accessibility were encountered. In conclusion, our study suggests that PPHQ in primary healthcare may primarily be determined by organizational and financial accessibility and staff behavior, which may also act as an important mediating factor.

Suggested Citation

  • Vaida Servetkienė & Roma Puronaitė & Birutė Mockevičienė & Karolis Ažukaitis & Danguolė Jankauskienė, 2023. "Determinants of Patient-Perceived Primary Healthcare Quality in Lithuania," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(6), pages 1-19, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:20:y:2023:i:6:p:4720-:d:1090391
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/6/4720/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/6/4720/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sitzia, John & Wood, Neil, 1997. "Patient satisfaction: A review of issues and concepts," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 45(12), pages 1829-1843, December.
    2. Andaleeb, Syed Saad, 2001. "Service quality perceptions and patient satisfaction: a study of hospitals in a developing country," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 52(9), pages 1359-1370, May.
    3. Edward Kelley & Jeremy Hurst, 2006. "Health Care Quality Indicators Project: Conceptual Framework Paper," OECD Health Working Papers 23, OECD Publishing.
    4. Beata Gavurova & Jan Dvorsky & Boris Popesko, 2021. "Patient Satisfaction Determinants of Inpatient Healthcare," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(21), pages 1-18, October.
    5. Faiza Manzoor & Longbao Wei & Abid Hussain & Muhammad Asif & Syed Irshad Ali Shah, 2019. "Patient Satisfaction with Health Care Services; An Application of Physician’s Behavior as a Moderator," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(18), pages 1-16, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ángel Fernández Pérez & Ángeles Sánchez Domínguez, 2017. "Los factores no clínicos como determinantes de la satisfacción con el sistema sanitario público en España," FEG Working Paper Series 01/17, Faculty of Economics and Business (University of Granada).
    2. Rezarta Kalaja & Halit Xhafa, 2016. "Patient Satisfaction with Health Care Services in Albania," Academic Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies, Richtmann Publishing Ltd, vol. 5, March.
    3. Abid Hussain & Muhammad Asif & Arif Jameel & Jinsoo Hwang & Noman Sahito & Shahida Kanwel, 2019. "Promoting OPD Patient Satisfaction through Different Healthcare Determinants: A Study of Public Sector Hospitals," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(19), pages 1-12, October.
    4. Broome, Kieran & Worrall, Linda & Fleming, Jennifer & Boldy, Duncan, 2012. "Evaluation of flexible route bus transport for older people," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 21(C), pages 85-91.
    5. Hyojung Tak & Gregory Ruhnke & Ya-Chen Shih, 2015. "The Association between Patient-Centered Attributes of Care and Patient Satisfaction," The Patient: Patient-Centered Outcomes Research, Springer;International Academy of Health Preference Research, vol. 8(2), pages 187-197, April.
    6. Hekkert, Karin Dorieke & Cihangir, Sezgin & Kleefstra, Sophia Martine & van den Berg, Bernard & Kool, Rudolf Bertijn, 2009. "Patient satisfaction revisited: A multilevel approach," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 69(1), pages 68-75, July.
    7. Lannes, Laurence, 2015. "Improving health worker performance: The patient-perspective from a PBF program in Rwanda," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 138(C), pages 1-11.
    8. Halim, Paisal, 2017. "Patient Satisfaction Level at Local General Hospital in Mamuju Regency, Indonesia," OSF Preprints 8xhqp, Center for Open Science.
    9. Atkinson, Sarah & Medeiros, Regianne L., 2009. "Explanatory models of influences on the construction and expression of user satisfaction," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 68(11), pages 2089-2096, June.
    10. Runtang Meng & Jingjing Li & Yunquan Zhang & Yong Yu & Yi Luo & Xiaohan Liu & Yanxia Zhao & Yuantao Hao & Ying Hu & Chuanhua Yu, 2018. "Evaluation of Patient and Medical Staff Satisfaction regarding Healthcare Services in Wuhan Public Hospitals," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-17, April.
    11. Waleed Al Nadabi & Mohammed A Mohammed, 2019. "Arabic Language Surveys Measuring Mothers’ Satisfaction During Childbirth: A Review," Global Journal of Health Science, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 11(6), pages 169-169, June.
    12. Ariff Syah Juhari & Muhammad Awais Bhatti & Shishi Kumar Piaralal, 2016. "Service Quality and Customer Loyalty in Malaysian Islamic Insurance Sector Exploring the mediating effects of Customer Satisfaction," International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, Human Resource Management Academic Research Society, International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, vol. 6(3), pages 17-36, March.
    13. Schwartz, Robert & Deber, Raisa, 2016. "The performance measurement–management divide in public health," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 120(3), pages 273-280.
    14. Hayat Belaid & Ahmed bouchenafa & Abd Elkader Barich & Karima Maazouzi, 2014. "The Quality of Health Services in Bechar Public Hospital Institution," Proceedings of International Academic Conferences 0101005, International Institute of Social and Economic Sciences.
    15. Sushma Rajbanshi & Mohd Noor Norhayati & Nik Hussain Nik Hazlina, 2021. "Perceptions of Good-Quality Antenatal Care and Birthing Services among Postpartum Women in Nepal," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(13), pages 1-13, June.
    16. Stefan Meinzer & Johann Prenninger & Patrick Vesel & Johannes Kornhuber & Judith Volmer & Joachim Hornegger & Björn M. Eskofier, 2016. "Translating satisfaction determination from health care to the automotive industry," Service Business, Springer;Pan-Pacific Business Association, vol. 10(4), pages 651-685, December.
    17. Bereket Yakob & Busisiwe Purity Ncama, 2016. "Correlates of perceived access and implications for health system strengthening – lessons from HIV/AIDS treatment and care services in Ethiopia," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(8), pages 1-19, August.
    18. Ajimon George & Jobin Sahadevan, 2019. "A Conceptual Framework of Antecedents of Service Loyalty in Health Care: Patients’ Perspective," IIM Kozhikode Society & Management Review, , vol. 8(1), pages 50-59, January.
    19. Willemijn van Dolen & Charles B. Weinberg, 2019. "An Empirical Investigation of Factors Affecting Perceived Quality and Well-Being of Children Using an Online Child Helpline," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(12), pages 1-11, June.
    20. Vanacore, Amalia & Pellegrino, Maria Sole, 2021. "Testing inter-group ranking heterogeneity: do patient characteristics matter for prioritization of quality improvements in healthcare service?," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:20:y:2023:i:6:p:4720-:d:1090391. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.