Observations
Interaction with patients was courteous in all departments on most of the days. Courtesy, as used above, refers to a means of communicating in which the receiver feels treated with respect. Personnel began the interaction with a greeting and spoke in low tones. There were, however, isolated incidents where there were misunderstandings between both parties.
Patients were not interrupted as they spoke, and doctors used open questions to understand what the patients were coming in with. A few patients, notably those with acute conditions like gastroenteritis and malaria, were counselled on practices to prevent recurrence of these conditions.
Interaction between laboratory staff and patients was usually indifferent, with patients being instructed on what to do without any greeting. After sitting down, the next instruction was to ask the patient to stretch his/her hand, without offering any explanation for the procedure going to be carried out. When patients were in pain, however, the staff apologised for the pain and consoled the patients.
Questionnaires
A total of 384 questionnaires were administered to people across all age groups, with a 100% response rate. The results are presented below.
Table 1 Demographic information of respondents
Characteristic
|
Frequency
|
Percentage
|
|
|
|
Age
|
|
|
Below 18
|
37
|
9.6
|
18-30
|
207
|
53.9
|
31-40
|
46
|
12.0
|
41-50
|
16
|
4.2
|
51-60
|
32
|
8.3
|
Above 61
|
46
|
12.0
|
|
|
|
Gender
|
|
|
Male
|
177
|
46.1
|
Female
|
207
|
53.9
|
|
|
|
Highest educational level
|
|
|
No formal education
|
18
|
4.7
|
Basic
|
125
|
32.6
|
Secondary
|
81
|
21.1
|
Tertiary
|
160
|
41.7
|
|
|
|
Marital status
|
|
|
Married
|
118
|
30.7
|
Single
|
222
|
57.8
|
Divorced
|
6
|
1.6
|
Separated
|
5
|
1.3
|
Cohabitation
|
4
|
1.0
|
Widowed
|
29
|
7.6
|
|
|
|
Occupation
|
|
|
Self-employed
|
118
|
30.7
|
Unemployed
|
86
|
22.4
|
Civil servant
|
61
|
15.9
|
Private sector employee
|
119
|
30.9
|
63.5% of respondents were between the ages of 18 and 30.
46.1% were males whereas 53.9% were females, with 41.7% of respondents having had tertiary education, 32.6% had basic education, 21.1% had secondary education, and 4.7%, no education.
57.8% were single and 30.7% married. 9.9% were widowed, divorced, separated or cohabitating.
77.6% of respondents were employed in both public and private jobs. The remaining 22.4% were unemployed, predominantly students or retirees.
Conduct of health workers
Most health workers were judged to be warm and courteous with the lowest number recorded by the laboratory department (68.6%). 7% of respondents reported being treated harshly by records personnel. 73.2% said nurses educated them on the hospital procedure.
Procedures were explained to respondents by requesting from physicians in 44.6% of the cases, whereas 55.4% of respondents received no explanation before the procedure was carried out. 70.5% were however consoled by laboratory workers during painful procedures.
The medical consultation
93.8% were allowed to express themselves freely without being unduly interrupted by the doctor, though 22.7% said they were not examined by the doctor. Components of examination included touching them to feel for warmth, assessing for pallor and use of the stethoscope.
Only 37.3% of the respondents were told what their diagnoses were, though 53.1% received explanations for their pathologies without being told its name. Of those who knew their diagnoses, 51.7% were informed of long-term diagnoses, including pregnancy, hypertension, sickle cell disease, diabetes mellitus, osteoarthritis. The remaining 48.3% had acute diagnoses like malaria, typhoid, food poisoning, etc. 52% of respondents were not informed of their diagnoses.
For 46% of respondents, treatment and treatment options were discussed with the respondents, which was not the case with 54% of respondents.
75.8% of respondents underwent procedures, including lab tests, ECGs, x-rays, and ultrasound scans, of which 45.7% were given explanations on the procedure to be carried out by the requesting officer.
64.4% said they had been given an explanation on how to prevent recurrence or complications of their diagnoses, whilst 70.7% of respondents reported having a sense of control over personal health events as a result of the consultation.