Dansereau, E., Masiye, F., Gakidou, E., Masters, S. H., Burstein, R., & Kumar, S. (2015). Patient
satisfaction and perceived quality of care: evidence from a cross-sectional national exit survey of
HIV and non-HIV service users in Zambia. BMJ open, 5(12).
Dansereau et al (2015) conducted a study to evaluate the link between the perceived
standard of care and patient contentment in patients with HIV and those without HIV in Zambia.
The researchers conducted exit interviews across 16 Zambian districts and a two-stage stratified
random sampling procedure was employed to include the healthcare facilities. The study
involved interviews that were conducted at 104 healthcare facilities, and 30 patients were
sampled at each facility.
The study found that average satisfaction stood at 6.9 out of 10 for services under non-
HIV, while for services under HIV the average satisfaction stood at 7.3. The study revealed that
perceived standard of care is a vital determiner of patient contentment with health delivery. The
study also revealed that provider practices and conduct as well as medical resources were
important predictors of general patient satisfaction. Thirdly, facility attributes like location, level
of facility, and type of management were significant determinants of patient satisfaction.
Ede, V., Okafor, M., Kinuthia, R., Belay, Z., Tewolde, T., Alema-Mensah, E., & Satcher, D.
(2015). An examination of perceptions in integrated care practice. Community mental health
journal, 51(8), 949-961.
Ede et al (2015) acknowledge in this study that the successful incorporation of primary
care and behavioral health services is informed by views about its importance to the consumer.
The study conducted an evaluation of patient, staff, and provider perceptions in five integrated
care facilities with the aim of describing and examining perceptions or views and degree of
satisfaction with integrated care. The researchers conducted a quantitative study whereby data
was gathered through surveys involving 11 care providers, 27 support staff, and 51 patients.
The survey results established a significantly higher degree of contentment with
incorporation of behavioral and primary health services. The researchers found that integrated
care could be improved by addressing the competency of care providers as well as confidence
issues through ongoing education, enhanced collaboration and use of diagnostic instruments. The
study offers evidence to support that appropriate integration enhances improves access to mental
healthcare and it is essential when it comes to reducing the mental health care gap by increasing
services for substance abuse and mental disorders among people with chronic illnesses. This
study is useful because it offers insights on how patients’ degree of satisfaction and their
perceptions of satisfaction are essential in the successful adoption of integration.
Walker, K. O., Stewart, A. L., & Grumbach, K. (2016). Development of a survey instrument to
measure patient experience of integrated care. BMC health services research, 16(1), 193.
In this paper, Walker et al (2016) define the creation and evaluation of a multifaceted
self-report assessment of experiences that patients have with integrated care. The researchers
acknowledge that previous studies on integrated care have regarded integration as a structural
aspect that is centered on geographic co-location of services, as well as the organizational
aspects of vertically incorporated healthcare delivery systems or horizontally integrated entities.
This study notes that there are no available psychometrically sound tools of survey for
methodically assessing all the elements of the experience that patients have when it comes to
integrated care.
The study borrowed from the Singer conceptual framework to inform the development of
the instrument while concentrating on aspects which properly-established self-report measures
are not available. The study also relied on extensive literature search to select the scales of
integrated care using English articles published between 1985 and 2011. The researchers
reviewed the obtainable survey tools to pinpoint questions that can highlight elements of the five
domains that they intended to include in their integrated care tool. Furthermore the study
conducted personal face-to-face cognitive interviews using convenience sampling of 20 patients
from various clinics in the San Francisco General Hospital.
The study confirmed scales evaluating five domains: coordination between and within
care teams, communication between basic care physicians and experts, navigation, and
communication between experts and basic care physicians. Low levels of integration were
denoted by mean scale scores. This study is useful because it offers valuable insights into how
scales assessing integrated care represent important domains of the experiences that patients have
with the healthcare facility. It also offers useful inputs about the aspects of patient care that could
be assessed to evaluate quality of patient care.
Yuan, S., Wang, F., Zhao, Y., & Liu, Y. (2019). Assessing perceived quality of primary care
under hospital‐township health centre integration: A cross‐sectional study in China. The
International Journal of Health Planning and Management, 35(1), e196-e209.
Yuan et al (2019) affirm the importance of integrating primary health facilities and
hospitals in China as an appropriate approach for enhancing the standard of basic care. The
researchers sought to assess the observed standard of basic care in hospital-township health
center incorporation. The researchers sought to answer two questions: First, the study sought to
evaluate the observed standard of township health centers (THCs) under incorporation.
Secondly, the study sought to assess the observed differences among the three characteristic
incorporation methods, namely, public hospital-THC integration, loose collaboration, and private
hospital-THC.
The researchers conducted two series of cross-sectional surveys from 2016, November to
2018, June. The study relied on the Chinese variety of the Primary Care Assessment Tool to
assess the reported standard of sample THCs, while 1118 patients that are adults were
interviewed. The study further utilized multiple linear regressions to relate the primary care
quality measures between the two series as well as amongst the three integration methods after
controlling for possible cofounders.
This study is valuable because it provides comprehensive comparisons of different
integration models and how they affect perceived quality of primary care. The findings of the
study also contribute to a deeper understanding of the adoption of existing integration models
and offer a valuable reference for developing related policies. Lastly, the study offers guidance
for future studies to improve the empirical evidence in this issue.