KWAME NKRUMAH UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

INSTITUTE OF DISTANCE LEARNING

THESIS PROPOSALJANUARY 2011

PROPOPOSAL FOR RESEARCH ON

TITLE: Customer Care and Satisfaction Challenges in Mission Hospitals; A Case Study of St. Patrick's Hospital

CANDIDATE: ANGELA ASANTE - YEBOAH PG 3100609

SUPERVISOR: MR. ADU GYAMFI

CHAPTER ONE

Background of the study

Healthcare plays a central and powerful role in today's society and in Ghana, a

more critical role. It is a sector that employs more than 57,000 employees and

expends 6.2% on gross domestic product (GDP).

In this industry, each person has a stake and the importance of healthcare will

continue to increase as the ages of the population of Ghana increases and as

accessibility to healthcare worldwide improves. It is a highly sophisticated

profession, and at heart an intensely personal business. Patients interact with

doctors, nurses, pharmacists, security personnel, orderlies and other healthcare

providers. It is this series of interactions that comprise the quality of care and

drives patient satisfaction.

Customer Care involves putting systems in place to maximize customers

satisfaction. High quality services have been shown to be directly linked to

increased market share, profits and savings. Specifically, patients quality

perceptions have been shown to account for 17 - 27% of variation in hospitals

financial measures such as earnings and net revenue. Moreover negative word of

mouth can cost hospitals huge lost revenues.

Increasing evidence that the service aspect of healthcare is closely linked to health

care outcomes has caught the attention of industry leaders. The current health care

consumer is better educated and best informed it has ever been. A health care

organizations ability to satisfy consumer demand for convenience and infomation

can significantly influence the quality of health care it ultimately delivers. . Health

care organizations must address those aspects of service that consumers most

readily appreciate; participation in their own health care and treatment decision

making processes, access to care, relationship between physician; etc.

Thus the hospital market today has changed from a sellers' market to a buyers'

market where the customer, i.e. the patient is all important. Patients flock to a

hospital because of its good name and image not just because its services are

cheap.

Typically in mission hospitals, it is perceived that care is optimum and patients are

more satisfied than in Public Hospitals. It is also perceived that mission hospitals

are autonomous and therefore have no direct supervision over their operations and

that the funding they receive from their foreign partners enables them to ensure

optimum care, hence, little or no challenges to ensuring customer care and

satisfaction.

Specifically, this research will attempt to answer the following questions:

What is care and satisfaction for the customers of the hospital?

What factors account for dissatisfaction by customers to the hospital?

What are the customer care and satisfaction challenges faced by providers of

healthcare?

Has any action been undertaken to mitigate them?

What are the impacts of these challenges on the hospitals quality of service

and image?

What approach could be relevant in addressing these challenges?

By answering the above questions, the study will hope to bring available

theory and practice together and add to the growing literature in this field

Plan of Work

January – February, 2011 - detailed literature review finalized

March- April, 2011 - development , administration of questionnaire

and collection of data

May-June, 2011 -data evaluated and preparation of draft thesis

July, 2011 - final draft agreed with supervisor

CHAPTER TWO

OUTLINE OF RELEVANT LITERATURE

This research will review several theories by Anderson(1990) on Customer care,

analyze researches by Lynn Muray and Donald Baack of Pittsburg State

University on Service Failure, Service Recovery and the Healthcare Industry. It

will also review studies done by Aditi Naidu's on Factors affecting Patient

Satisfaction and Health Care Quality and Surjit S. Wadhwa’s commentary with an

Australian bias on Customer Satisfaction and Health Care Delivery System. Other

literature will be researched into and used as a good source of relevant information.

CHAPTER THREE

METHODOLOGYBoth desk research and field research will be carried out. Desk research will focus

on examining the literature. Field research will use questionnaire and structured

inter views to collect data from customers who have benefited from the services of

the hospital and healthcare providers, thus,

1. Customers - Patients and Relatives

2. Providers of the Service - Doctors, Nurses,administrator, etc.

Technique employed

Customers: Simple random sampling of fifty (50) attendants at the hospital OPD

and inpatients

Providers

Purposive sampling of thirty (30) healthcare providers and managers

CHAPTER FOUR

DATA ANALYSIS AND PRESENTATION

Data Analysis will be done with the aid of a computer software SPSS

CHAPTER FIVE

Conclusion

References

Abdalla S. & Prinz V., 2009, Healthcare in Ghana accessed via

www.ecoionet ON 17/01/2011/

Aditi. N. Factors Afecting Patient Satisfaction and Healthcare Quality

International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance, Volume 22 Number

4, 2009.

Baack D and Murray. L. Pittsburg State University. Service Failure, Service

Recovery and the Health Care Industry: A Model and Research Proposal.

Accessed via net on 17/1/2011.

Nair K.G. 2004. Customer Satisfaction in Hospitals, accessed via net on

17/01/11/

Surjit S. Wadhwa University of New South Wales, Customer Satisfaction

and Health Care Delivery Systems : Commentary with Australian Bias. The

Internet Journal of Health 2002 Volume 3 Number 1