Evaluation of the Staff Responsiveness Level to Patients Referred to Public and Private Hospitals in Mashhad during 2018

Measurement of health system performance can provide decision-makers with timely and relevant information on the performance of this system. Accordingly, Iran's Ministry of Health and Medical Education has considered the issue of the country's health care system responsiveness in the third, fourth, and fifth health plans of the country. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the staff responsiveness level to patients referred to private and public Hospitals in Mashhad during 2018.

This cross-sectional study was conducted based on an analytical method. The study population included patients referring to hospitals in Mashhad. The data were collected using a two-section standard responsiveness questionnaire (i.e., demographic information and eight responsiveness components) which was scored based on a Likert scale. Furthermore, the data were analyzed in SPSS software (version 20) through descriptive statistics (i.e., frequency, percentage, mean and standard deviation), as well as t-test, and Pearson correlation coefficient. A P-value less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant.

In total, 200 questionnaires were distributed in four public and three private hospitals. The mean total score of the responsiveness questionnaire was obtained at 3.4±0.8, which was assessed as moderate. Pearson correlation coefficient showed a significant relationship between the components of the questionnaire (P<0.001). Based on the results of the Student Test, a significant difference was observed between public and private hospitals regarding the total score and different components investigated in this study.

The findings of this study indicate that patients rated the level of staff responsiveness as moderate in hospitals in Mashhad. Therefore, there is a capacity to improve the staff responsiveness levels in these hospitals.