Subscriber Perception of Quality of Health Care Services Under the New Juabeng and Ketu District Mutual Health Insurance Schemes in Ghana.

Abstract

The perception that an individual forms about a thing affects that individual’s behaviour and attitude towards that thing. The District Mutual Health Insurance Schemes in Ghana are a new way of financing health care in the country. The need to sustain these newly introduced schemes by improving and sustaining quality of health care services under them is extremely important. However, there is a dearth of knowledge on subscribers’ perception of the quality of health care services under these schemes. Bridging this knowledge gap is a necessary first step in determining the improvement and subsequent sustainability of the quality of health services provided under the schemes. A convenient sample of 400 respondents each from the New Juabeng and Ketu District Mutual Health Insurance schemes participated in the study. The empirical research was conducted using questionnaire and interviews to assess subscribers’ perception of service quality under the two schemes. Respondents’ perception of service quality was measured along the following quality dimensions the level of communication, the demeanor of staff and availability of essential drugs using a likert scale. The scale was anchored 1 and 5 with one being “very good” and 5, “very poor”. The findings of the study indicate that subscribers in New Juabeng rated the overall level of communication and the attitude of staff as good on the likert scale, whilst those in Ketu rated the same quality dimensions as fair. On the issue of availability of essential drugs, 63% of the respondents in New Juabeng said prescribed drugs were available at the health care facilities and 44% of the respondents in Ketu said prescribed drugs were available at health care facilities in the locality. Respondents on the two schemes appeared to agree that an explanation on medical tests to be taken by them was important in determining the level of communication, while the courtesy of the nursing staff was a major determinant of the attitude of staffs in the health care facilities. Respondents recommended that nursing staffs of the various health facilities be courteous and helpful, National Health Insurance Drugs should be in constant supply at the health care facilities and health care facilities be expanded to accommodate the increases in hospital attendance following the introduction of the health insurance scheme.