Factors Influencing Quality of Physiotherapy Healthcare Services Received by Patients at Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital, Uasin-Gishu County, Kenya

Abstract

An integrated healthcare services entails management and delivery of quality and safe healthcare services so that people receive a continuum of health promotion, disease prevention, diagnosis, treatment, rehabilitation and palliative care services. This study sought to assess the factors influencing perceived quality of physiotherapy healthcare services received by patients at Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital (MTRH). The study objectives were; physiotherapists’ skills, rehabilitation protocols, space, and equipment. The study adopted cross-sectional study and utilized both stratified and systematic sampling to select the desired study units. A sample size of 317 physiotherapy patients and 6 key informants participated in the study and the patient questionaire and a key informant interview guide were the data collection tools respectively. Validity checks namely; face and content validity were carried out on the questionnaire which was then pretested on 15 patients receiving physiotherapy healthcare services at the Kapsabet County Referral Hospital in Nandi County. Cronbach’s alpha reliability test for internal consistency was assured at 0.6.Data was analyzed using SPSS version 25. Principal inferential statistic used in the analysis was multiple regressions which explained the relationship between the independent and dependent variables. The qualitative data from the study underwent transcription and reported in themes and sub-themes. The values obtained were considered significant at P˂0.05. There was a positive and significant correlation between quality of physiotherapy services, physiotherapists skills and equipment, a strong positive correlation between the quality of physiotherapy services and space and a positive correlation between the rehabilitation protocols and quality of physiotherapy services. The coefficient of determination obtained was .54 and this showed that the regression model explained only 54% of the factors that influenced quality of physiotherapy services at MTRH. MTRH management should organize and/or facilitate continuous professional development and seminars for physiotherapists to enhance their knowledge, skills and competences. The management of MTRH, physiotherapy department should adopt rehabilitation protocols both in outpatient and inpatient units so that patients can have seamless service provision. MTRH management should provide enough space for physiotherapy unit as per the international standards to increase patient satisfaction on the perceived quality of the physiotherapy services.The study can be applied in other fields that impact on service delivery either positively or negatively because perceived quality is not the sole factor influencing service delivery.In future, a longitudinal study can be done with more or less the same hypotheses putting into consideration data ranges in relation to the element of time.