Adult Hospital Inpatient Experience in Qatar And Associated Factors: A Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

Background: Evaluation of hospital inpatient experience (HIE) is an important measure used by healthcare organizations to evaluate the effectiveness of their current processes and understand how responsive and respectful the healthcare providers are in addressing patient needs and preferences. Aim: The aim of this thesis was to estimate the overall HIE in the State of Qatar and identify related factors using Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) survey from April 2017 to 2019, inclusive. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study using secondary HCAHPS data from the Ministry of Public Health from 12 public and private hospitals in Qatar. Multivariable multilevel linear regression methods were used to analyse the data. Results: This study included 14,367 survey participants. The national average for overall hospital rating was 88.9%. The trend for the average overall hospital rating increased from 2017 to 2019 (87.7% to 88.6%; F=7.3, p=0.007). The national average for willingness to recommend the hospital to family and friends was 89.0%. Also, recommendation of hospital showed a higher score in 2019 compared to 2017 (87.6% to 88.7%; F=8.5, p=0.004). Communication with doctors and nurses rating domains had the largest association with overall hospital rating and recommendation of the hospital. Responsiveness of hospital staff was the only HCAHPS domain, which was not statistically associated with overall hospital rating. Patient-level and hospital-level iv predictors showed different association patterns across HCAHPS domains and individual items. Patient’s overall health rating was a statistically significant predictor for all HCAHPS domains and individual items excluding communication with nurses and communication with doctors’ domains. Communication with nurses average score decreased from 92.7% to 89.4% in all hospitals over the study period (F=103.3, p=<0.001). Similarly, communication with doctors scores decreases in all hospitals from 93.2% to 90.1% (F=94.3, p=<0.001) Conclusions: Improving patient experience and engagement with the healthcare system is an important outcome, which should be evaluated and monitored regularly to assess the progress in achieving the NHS 2018-2022 priorities for Qatar. The findings provide a baseline measure for the HIE on a national level and highlight important factors associated with HIE. This information is helpful for planning and prioritizing national and hospital-level quality improvement projects in Qatar.