Barriers to quality patient care in rural district hospitals
Date
2012-05
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
AOSIS Publishing
Abstract
Currently barriers exist in delivering quality health care. This study aimed to investigate such barriers in the eight rural district hospitals of the West Coast Winelands Region, three type A and five type B hospitals.
A quantitative descriptive design was applied which included the total population of nursing staff (n = 340) working at the time of data collection. A self-administered questionnaire was distributed with a response rate of 82%. Reliability of the instrument was verified using the Cronbach alpha coefficient and a pilot
study. The validity, specifically construct and content validity, were assured by means of an extensive literature review, pilot study and use of experts. Ethics approval was obtained from the relevant stakeholders.
Results showed that 272 participants (97%) disagreed that provision of staff was adequate, with staff above 40 years of age more likely to disagree (p = 0.01). A statistically significant association was shown between availability of doctors and staff not being able to cope with
emergencies (p = <0.01). Most participants (n =212; 76%) indicated that they were not receiving continuing education, with the registered nurses more likely to disagree (÷² test, p = 0.02). Participants in both hospital types A (n = 131; 82%) and B (n = 108; 91%) also disagreed that provision of equipment and consumables was adequate.
The research showed that inadequacies relating to human resources, professional development, consumables and equipment influenced the quality of patient care. Urgent attention should be given to the problems identified to ensure quality of patient care in rural hospitals.
Description
CITATION: Eygelaar, J. E. & Stellenberg, E. L. 2012. Barriers to quality patient care in rural district hospitals. Curationis, 35(1): 1-8, doi: 10.4102/curationis.v35i1.36.
The original publication is available at http://www.curationis.org.za
The original publication is available at http://www.curationis.org.za
Keywords
Rural hospitals -- Medical staff -- Western Cape (South Africa), Career development -- Western Cape (South Africa), Professional development, Medical care -- Evaluation -- Western Cape (South Africa), Medical supplies -- Western Cape (South Africa)
Citation
Eygelaar, J. E. & Stellenberg, E. L. 2012. Barriers to quality patient care in rural district hospitals. Curationis, 35(1): 1-8, doi: 10.4102/curationis.v35i1.36