Background
: Considering patients’ needs and expectations in the process of healthcare delivery
improves the quality of services. This study aimed to investigate the responsiveness of general
public and private hospitals in Mashhad, Iran.
Methods
: In this cross-sectional and explanatory study, hospitalized patients (with at least 2
days of stay) in general private and public hospitals in Mashhad were investigated. In total 425
patients (259 from private and 166 from public hospitals) were selected using a stratified and
simple random sampling. Standard responsiveness questionnaire was used as the data collection
tool. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, independent t-tests and ANOVA by SPSS 16 at
a significance level of 0.05.
Results
: Access to the social support during hospitalization as well as confidentiality of the
patient’s information achieved the highest score (3.21±0.73) while the patient participation in
decision-making process of treatment received the least score (2.34±1.24). Among the research
population 1.6%, 4.1%, 17.6%, 63.3% and 13.2% commented on the responsiveness level as very
low, low, moderate, good, and excellent, respectively. There was no significant difference between
the overall responsiveness scores of public and private hospitals (
P
≥0.05).
Conclusion
: The hospitals have enough potential to improve various aspects of their
responsiveness. We suggest a number of measures can help improve the non-clinical aspects of
care. These include: using educational courses to improve the knowledge and attitudes of medical
and nonmedical staff, changing the resource allocation method, and using quality tools such as
reengineering to modify the healthcare delivery processes
