Background: Patients’ satisfaction has always been used to measure the effectiveness of healthcare delivery, whilst the perspectives of healthcare professionals on overall healthcare quality and the challenges they experience are rarely considered and investigated. There is limited evidence of literature addressing this important topic; this study was conducted to fill in the gap. Objectives: To assess the views of healthcare professionals and patients regarding challenges they experience and measures to improve the quality of health service delivery and integrate the views into the strategy of improving the quality of health service delivery at a District Hospital in Gauteng Province. Methods: A pilot study was conducted using self-developed questionnaires, issued out to patients (n = 5) and 10 healthcare professionals including nurses (n = 5) and doctors (n = 5) from the estimated population. Statistical Package for Social Science (SSPS) version 30.0 was used to run a descriptive statistical analysis. Results: The pilot study provides preliminary results that healthcare professionals and patients experience common challenges affecting quality of care including hospital-overcrowding, staff-shortage, aging hospital infrastructure, and lack of resources and equipment. A collaborative strategy developed from the pilot study include (1) maintaining a positive healthcare professional–patient relationship; which is followed by activities as; (1.1) healthcare professionals and patients involving all essential parties in decision making and patient care; (1.2) healthcare professionals and patients to share challenges they each experience; (1.3) healthcare professionals and patients to understand and implement their roles in patient care; and (1.4) healthcare professionals and patients utilizing available resources and services for quality care. The Cronbach’s alpha for healthcare professionals’ questionnaire was 0.809 indicating good reliability. In contrast, the patients questionnaire had a Cronbach’s alpha of 0.532 suggesting the to be modified. Conclusions: Healthcare professional and patients experience common challenges that affect the quality of health service delivery. The findings of the pilot study suggest that it is essential for healthcare professionals and patients to collaborate for an improved quality of health service delivery.
Author Contributions
Conceptualization, N.M.; methodology, N.M.; software, N.M.; validation, N.M., M.O.M. and M.A.B.; formal analysis, N.M., M.O.M. and M.A.B.; investigation, N.M.; resources, N.M.; data curations, N.M.; writing original draft preparation, N.M., M.O.M. and M.A.B.; writing-review and editing, N.M., M.O.M. and M.A.B.; visualization, N.M.; supervision, M.O.M. and M.A.B.; project administration, N.M. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.
Funding
This research received no external funding.
Institutional Review Board Statement
The study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki, and approved by the Turfloop Research Committee (TREC) (TREC/1817/2024: PG) 02 December 2024.
Informed Consent Statement
Informed consent was obtained from all subjects involved in the study. Written informed consent has been obtained from the participants to publish this paper.
Data Availability Statement
The database that supports the findings of this study are available upon request from the corresponding author, N.M. as the data contains information that could jeopardize the privacy of research participants, it is not publicly available.
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank and acknowledge all the respondents who took their time to participate in the pilot study. During the preparation of this manuscript the authors used Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 30.0 for the purpose of running a descriptive analysis. The authors have reviewed and edited the output and take full responsibility for the content of this publication.
Conflicts of Interest
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
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