The effects of a transfer to new premises on patients' perceptions of service quality in a general hospital in Greece

Perspectives of Nurses Toward Telehealth Efficacy and Quality of Health Care: Pilot Study

Background

Telehealth nursing, or the delivery, management, and coordination of nursing care services provided via telecommunications technology, is one of the methods of delivering health care to patients in the United States. It is important to assess the service quality of the involved health professionals as well as the telehealth nursing process. The focus of this study is the innovative model of telehealth care delivery by nurses for managing patients with chronic disease while they are living in their own residence.

Objective

The primary objective of this pilot study was to examine whether telehealth technology impacts the perceived level of internal service quality delivered by nurses within a telehealth organization. To address this research goal, the notion of telehealth nursing service quality (TNSQ) is empirically tested and validated with a survey instrument.

Methods

Data were collected from nurses belonging to a home care agency based on interview questions inquiring about facilitators and inhibitors to TNSQ. A survey to measure TNSQ based on the SERVQUAL instrument was completed by adjusting descriptions of the original instrument to suit the context. Follow-up interviews were conducted to validate questions on the revised instrument.

Results

The findings of this survey research were positive, based on mean differences between expectations and perceptions of TNSQ. This indicates satisfaction with TNSQ and shows that the quality of the service is higher than what the respondents expect. The Wilcoxon signed-rank test using the P value for the test, which is .35, did not show a statistically significant change between the median differences of perception and expectation. The total number of respondents was 13. Results indicate that overall perceived service quality is a positive value (0.05332). This means the perceptions of the level of service are slightly higher than what they expect, indicating there is satisfaction with TNSQ.

Conclusions

The responses to the interview questions and data gathered from the survey showed overall satisfaction with TNSQ. The SERVQUAL instrument was a good framework to assess TNSQ. In a nutshell, the study highlighted how the telehealth process provides daily monitoring of patient health, leading to the benefits of immediate feedback for patients, family, and caregivers as well as convenience of scheduling.

Perceptions of Healthcare Service End Users

The main objective of this study was to compare users’ perception and evaluation of both public and private healthcare services, distinguishing between primary and specialty care, with a cross-cultural approach in two Mediterranean countries: Italy and Spain.

Within an exploratory approach and following a descriptive aim, we have conducted a quantitative methodology: after a literature review about health marketing and health management, we have developed a questionnaire and collected end users’ perceptions in both countries.

Results highlight different aspects shaping the multidimensional healthcare service, such as the waiting lists, their experienced sensations, word-of-mouth (WOM) relevance and their behavioural intentions in the future

Out of the results, implications for scholars interested in the marketing of public services are proposed in terms of the idiosyncrasy of health consumer behaviour: satisfaction with and willingness to recommend a service provider (public or private) according to comparative service provision (primary or specialized care service) and geographical context (Italy and Spain). Implications for health managers highlight the relevance of time management, experiential marketing in health service provision, WOM relevance and behavioural intentions.