HEALTHCARE SERVICE PROVISION STRATEGY AND ORGANISATION PERFORMANCE OF PRIVATE HOSPITALS IN ELDORET TOWN, KENYA

Abstract

Private health industry has received much attention in recent times and are crucial in expansion of access to quality healthcare. The organisation performance of private hospitals is dependent on service quality standards offered to their clients. Evidence has shown than majority of private hospitals in the country are undergoing performance challenges due to inability to retain and satisfy their customers. Therefore, this study sought to find how healthcare service provision strategy affects organisation performance of private hospitals in Eldoret town. Specifically, this research addressed the following objectives; to analyse implementation of service quality standards and organisation performance of private hospitals, to assess the infrastructure facilities standards and organisation performance of private hospitals, to ascertain the influence of ICT adoption and organisation performance of private hospitals and to establish the influence of decision making processes and organisation performance of private hospitals in Eldoret town. This study was supported by the following theories: Service Quality (SERVQUAL) model, decision-making theory and Unified Theory of Acceptance of Technology (UTAUT) to explicate the existing relationship between variables in the investigation. The study is quantitative in nature guided by correlational research design. The target population involved 1875 employees from 25 private hospitals in Eldoret. A sample size of 319 respondents was chosen through Cochran sample size formula to be the representative of the whole population. The respondents (319) out of 1875 were selected using stratified and random sampling method. Questionnaire was the instrument used in gathering of data. This instrument was tested for content validity and reliability before being administered to the field. Participants were implored to consent their voluntary participation in the study bearing in mind that their answers were kept confidential. Data analysis was undertaken through use of descriptive statistics which included means, percentages, frequencies, and standard deviation and inferential statistics; correlation and multiple linear regression with the help of Statistical Product and Service Solutions computer software. Findings showed that all the healthcare service provision strategy had positive beta coefficient scores in the following order; service quality standards (β=0.240), ICT systems adoption and use (β=0.155), infrastructure facilities standards (β=0.148) and lastly decision making processes (β=0.103). It is then concluded that performance of hospitals dependent on the range at which healthcare service provision strategies were implemented by the management of private hospitals in Eldoret. It is recommended private hospitals need to regularly collect customers’ feedback to improve on the standards of services, there is need for hospital infrastructure to be regularly monitored to ensure that they are fit to provide quality services to patients, ICT systems to be used in hospitals needs to be updated and decisions making processes should be flexible to allow amendments and improvements in case of future changes. The study findings provide solutions to private hospitals on the way to improve on their performance through adoption of healthcare service strategies in delivery of services to patients.