Hospitals responsiveness from the patient's perspective: A cross-sectional study in Tehran, Iran

Responsiveness reflects how the health system responds to the patient’s legitimate non-medical expectations of health care. This study aimed to assess the level of responsiveness in public hospitals of Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences in Tehran, Iran.
In this cross-sectional study, 300 discharged patients from two teaching and public hospital were selected using convenience sampling. To collect study data, the 32-item questionnaire developed by World Health Organization (WHO) was used, and its validity and reliability were confirmed. For data analysis, descriptive statistics and t-test, ANOVA and Spearman correlation tests were used through SPSS. 22 application.
The overall mean score of hospitals responsiveness was 3.3 (±0.67) out of 5. Three dimensions, choice of provider (2.7), autonomy (3.1) and prompt attention (3.1) got the lowest scores and considered as weaknesses in responsiveness. Quality of basic amenities (3.6), access to social support (3.6) and dignity (3.5) received the highest scores and ranked as strengths of hospital responsiveness. There was a significant relationship between responsiveness score with length of stay, previous hospitalization in that same hospital, inpatient wards, the source of recommendation, and patient’s health status at discharge.
ž Responsiveness of hospitals was evaluated at moderate level. Hospitals should pay more attention to meet patients expectations regarding the non-clinical aspects of care. Focus of mangers and policymakers on training of human resources and allocating more resource can play an effective role in responsiveness improvement.