| dc.description.abstract | Service delivery in government health facilities in
Kenya still faces multiple challenges. These challenges can still
be identified ten years down the line since the introduction of
Service Charter. The objective of the study was to assess how the
service charter utilization would influence health service delivery
in Thika Level 5 Hospital (TL5H) in Kiambu County. Cross
sectional study design was employed. Quantitative data was
collected using questionnaires. A sample size of 156 technical
employees of TL5H and patients participated in this study.
Collected data was edited, coded, and entered into the computer
using the Statistical Package for Social Scientists (SPSS v 23).
The respondents strongly agreed that the hospital charter content
is not viewed annually creating unfriendly services (mean 1.73,
SD 0.97), (mean 1.74, SD 0.997) indicated the respondents
strongly agreed that the service charter is not clearly understood
by the majority of patients informing them of their rights when
seeking services. The respondents disagreed that the hospital
management is always active in monitoring performance and
playing the oversight duty according to the SC (mean 2.19, SD
1.20) on whether failure to utilize the service charter may lead to
deterioration of quality and equity of healthcare, the respondents
agreed (mean 2.05, SD 1.54). Most of the respondents strongly
agreed there is availability of support for the service charter
(Mean 1.72, SD 0.93), while the respondents also indicated that
the waiting time has not improved despite the availability of
service charter (Mean 2.98, SD 1.09). The study also established
that there was uncertainty in the amount of waiting time in TL5H
(Mean 1.775, SD 0.91). The channels used for communication
were not clear (Mean 1.993, SD 1.12) while the communication
at TL5H does not ensure clarity on issues (Mean 1.9, SD 1.07)
while the respondent agreed on communication at TL5H was not
always done to get commitment from staff (Mean 1.923, SD
1.047) and there was inadequate open communication of most
issues at TL5H (Mean 1.846, SD 1.075). The study recommends
that 1) TL5H should improve the contents of the service charter
to make it clear, to ensure that the patients fully understand the
contents, 2) there should be proper monitoring of the members of
staff to ensure that the service charter is fully implemented to
minimize the amount of complaints by patients, 3) the service
charter contents should be embedded in the organization culture
to ensure that is fully and properly implemented to the
satisfaction of the service users. | en_US |
