Testing the Strength of Hospital Accreditation as a Signal of the Quality of Care in Romania: Do Patients’ and Health Professionals’ Perceptions Align?
Hospital accreditation, as a quality signal, is gaining its popularity among low- and middle-income countries, such as Romania, despite its costly nature. Nevertheless, its effectiveness as a quality signal in driving patients’ choice of hospital services remains unclear. In this study, we intend to...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
MDPI AG
2020-09-01
|
| Series: | Healthcare |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2227-9032/8/3/349 |
| _version_ | 1797553198308786176 |
|---|---|
| author | Elena Druică Bingyi Wu Vasile Cepoi Viorel Mihăilă Marin Burcea |
| author_facet | Elena Druică Bingyi Wu Vasile Cepoi Viorel Mihăilă Marin Burcea |
| author_sort | Elena Druică |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Hospital accreditation, as a quality signal, is gaining its popularity among low- and middle-income countries, such as Romania, despite its costly nature. Nevertheless, its effectiveness as a quality signal in driving patients’ choice of hospital services remains unclear. In this study, we intend to empirically explore the perceptions of both healthcare professionals and patients toward Romanian hospital accreditation and identify perception gaps between the two parties. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were carried out to extract the latent constructs of health professionals’ perceived effects of hospital accreditation. The Wilcoxon rank-sum test and Kruskal–Wallis test were used to identify correlations between patients’ sociodemographic characteristics and their behavioral intentions when confronted with low-quality services. We found that health professionals believe that hospital accreditation plays a positive role in improving patient satisfaction, institutional reputation, and healthcare services quality. However, we found a lack of awareness of hospital accreditation status among patients, indicating the existence of the perception gap of the accreditation effectiveness as a market signal. Our results suggest that the effect of interpersonal trust in current service providers may distract patients from the accreditation status. Our study provides important practical implications for Romanian hospitals on enhancing the quality of accreditation signal and suggests practical interventions. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-10T16:11:58Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-c9cf60b2ff484e29a1fc9f259e5d7678 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2227-9032 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-10T16:11:58Z |
| publishDate | 2020-09-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Healthcare |
| spelling | doaj.art-c9cf60b2ff484e29a1fc9f259e5d76782023-11-20T14:22:22ZengMDPI AGHealthcare2227-90322020-09-018334910.3390/healthcare8030349Testing the Strength of Hospital Accreditation as a Signal of the Quality of Care in Romania: Do Patients’ and Health Professionals’ Perceptions Align?Elena Druică0Bingyi Wu1Vasile Cepoi2Viorel Mihăilă3Marin Burcea4Centre for Applied Behavioral Economics, Faculty of Business and Administration, University of Bucharest, 030018 Bucharest, RomaniaCollege of Business, University of Texas at San Antonio, NPB 2.146, San Antonio, TX 78249, USAThe Romanian Authority for Quality Assurance in Healthcare, 060022 Bucharest, RomaniaCentre for Applied Behavioral Economics, Faculty of Business and Administration, University of Bucharest, 030018 Bucharest, RomaniaFaculty of Business and Administration, University of Bucharest, 030018 Bucharest, RomaniaHospital accreditation, as a quality signal, is gaining its popularity among low- and middle-income countries, such as Romania, despite its costly nature. Nevertheless, its effectiveness as a quality signal in driving patients’ choice of hospital services remains unclear. In this study, we intend to empirically explore the perceptions of both healthcare professionals and patients toward Romanian hospital accreditation and identify perception gaps between the two parties. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were carried out to extract the latent constructs of health professionals’ perceived effects of hospital accreditation. The Wilcoxon rank-sum test and Kruskal–Wallis test were used to identify correlations between patients’ sociodemographic characteristics and their behavioral intentions when confronted with low-quality services. We found that health professionals believe that hospital accreditation plays a positive role in improving patient satisfaction, institutional reputation, and healthcare services quality. However, we found a lack of awareness of hospital accreditation status among patients, indicating the existence of the perception gap of the accreditation effectiveness as a market signal. Our results suggest that the effect of interpersonal trust in current service providers may distract patients from the accreditation status. Our study provides important practical implications for Romanian hospitals on enhancing the quality of accreditation signal and suggests practical interventions.https://www.mdpi.com/2227-9032/8/3/349hospital accreditationpatient freedom of choice lawquality of healthcare |
| spellingShingle | Elena Druică Bingyi Wu Vasile Cepoi Viorel Mihăilă Marin Burcea Testing the Strength of Hospital Accreditation as a Signal of the Quality of Care in Romania: Do Patients’ and Health Professionals’ Perceptions Align? Healthcare hospital accreditation patient freedom of choice law quality of healthcare |
| title | Testing the Strength of Hospital Accreditation as a Signal of the Quality of Care in Romania: Do Patients’ and Health Professionals’ Perceptions Align? |
| title_full | Testing the Strength of Hospital Accreditation as a Signal of the Quality of Care in Romania: Do Patients’ and Health Professionals’ Perceptions Align? |
| title_fullStr | Testing the Strength of Hospital Accreditation as a Signal of the Quality of Care in Romania: Do Patients’ and Health Professionals’ Perceptions Align? |
| title_full_unstemmed | Testing the Strength of Hospital Accreditation as a Signal of the Quality of Care in Romania: Do Patients’ and Health Professionals’ Perceptions Align? |
| title_short | Testing the Strength of Hospital Accreditation as a Signal of the Quality of Care in Romania: Do Patients’ and Health Professionals’ Perceptions Align? |
| title_sort | testing the strength of hospital accreditation as a signal of the quality of care in romania do patients and health professionals perceptions align |
| topic | hospital accreditation patient freedom of choice law quality of healthcare |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2227-9032/8/3/349 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT elenadruica testingthestrengthofhospitalaccreditationasasignalofthequalityofcareinromaniadopatientsandhealthprofessionalsperceptionsalign AT bingyiwu testingthestrengthofhospitalaccreditationasasignalofthequalityofcareinromaniadopatientsandhealthprofessionalsperceptionsalign AT vasilecepoi testingthestrengthofhospitalaccreditationasasignalofthequalityofcareinromaniadopatientsandhealthprofessionalsperceptionsalign AT viorelmihaila testingthestrengthofhospitalaccreditationasasignalofthequalityofcareinromaniadopatientsandhealthprofessionalsperceptionsalign AT marinburcea testingthestrengthofhospitalaccreditationasasignalofthequalityofcareinromaniadopatientsandhealthprofessionalsperceptionsalign |