Patient Satisfaction in Health Care Management with Special Reference to Missionary Hospitals in Kerala
Abstract
Kerala has become a success and a model for the country, especially in increasing life expectancy as well as reducing infant and maternal mortalities. With high literacy, education and social standards of living, the state has got laurels and ratings in health excellence, which are comparable even to some of the developed economies. But there is a wider demographic and epidemiological transition happened which lead to higher morbidity rates and life style diseases. With higher education levels and awareness, the expectations of the patients have also increased and they demand quality services at affordable prices, which lead to high competition among the private health providers. The healthcare scenario of the State had undergone a drastic change with private health care provides majority of the health services. This leads to huge increase in health costs and made it unaffordable for most of the patients, and health expenditure has gone without regulations. An organized movement in healthcare sector was initiated by the Missionary churches by establishing a variety of healthcare formats in the remote areas of Kerala. The missionary hospitals are supposed to balance this by providing quality services at sustainable cost models, even by taking care of the poor and the undeserved. In a competitive healthcare market, it is always a challenging task for the missionary hospitals to sustain themselves by meeting the higher expectations of the patients at one side and meeting the higher health care costs on the other side, not losing affordability and accessibility. As the major stakeholders in healthcare, proper understanding of the factors of patient satisfaction will help the policy makers and top management for effective management and policy decisions.
How to cite this article:
Mammen PV, George L. Patient Satisfaction in Missionary Hospitals of Kerala. Int J HealthCare Edu & Med Inform. 2022;9(1&2):9-16.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.24321/2455.9199.202202
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Copyright (c) 2022 Pradeep V Mammen, Lucy George
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