HEALTHCARE SERVICE QUALITY AND PATIENT SATISFACTION IN OMANI PUBLIC HOSPITALS THROUGHOUT COVID-19 ERA: AN EMPIRICAL INVESTIGATION

About the Book

Healthcare quality (HQ) became eminent during the COVID-19 crisis. Despite the efforts made by the Ministry of Health in Oman, the country faced several challenges, such as a lack of available funds and patients perceived in a negative manner which hindered their treatment experience. The study examines factors affecting HQ using the SERVQUAL model; patient satisfaction in Omani public hospitals, including healthcare quality, resources availability (RA), and healthcare facility preparedness (HFP); and the moderation effect of the perceived risk of COVID-19 pandemic. This research uses a mixed method with a sample size of 387 patients (quantitatively) selected using probability random sampling of 8 patients (qualitatively) who visited public hospitals The findings from the quantitative analysis reveals that the tangibility and RA had insignificant effect on the HQ. The moderation effect of perceived risk of COVID-19 between HQ, RA, HFP and patient satisfaction was insignificant. The results of the qualitative analysis indicated other factors that affected patient satisfaction, including communication, helpfulness, compassion, physician professionalism, patient-doctor contact, waiting time, atmosphere, and cleanliness. The study proposed a strategy for technical categories that include professional skills, service outcomes and concrete quality aspects, and functional categories. The study has also recommended implications for further investigation.

About the Author

Ghaliya Al Atar Dr Ghaliya Al Atar works in the Directorate of Quality in Oman College of Health Sciences (OCHS). She has PhD from Infrastructure University Kuala Lumpur (IUKL), Malaysia on quality in public health care. She has a dental degree from OCHS and a Master in Business Administration from the University of Hull, UK. Prior to her current role, she worked as dental assistant in several hospitals including Al-Nahda Hospital and the Royal Hospital in Oncology Centre. She has also worked in primary health centres, secondary healthcare centres and special care needs school health programs. Ghaliya has trained a number of dental students in clinics and has worked as a superintendent for the dental education program and has contributed to the preparation of the five-year plans for dentistry from 2005-2010 in Directorate General Health Services, Muscat. She has also worked with the inspection teams of private and public dental clinics as part of the quality assurance program applied by the Ministry of Health. She has done a number of researches on evaluation of oral health program in public schools and quality of health system during Covid-19. She has applied Kaison approach in quality in the Health Sciences Programs from 2018 and has presented at a number of international business conferences. Abu Bakar Abdul Hamid Dr. Abu Bakar holds a BBA, MBA from Northrop University (USA), PhD from University of Derby (UK, 2003) and now attached as Professor at Infrastructure University Kuala Lumpur (IUKL), Malaysia. He has demonstrated an excellent record of teaching and supervision for more than 30 years in the academic field. His achievement in graduating more than 60 PhD candidates and 30 post-doc fellowships proves his ability, capability and passion in supervisions. He has shown excellent records of impactful research and publications which directly has strengthened his expertise in the area of his interest. He managed to secure several competitive national grants and consultant for various projects and later profoundly published in more than 350 articles in competitive international journals, proceedings, books and book chapters. Such commitment is truly an academician landmark.