Perceived quality of care among households ever enrolled in a community-based health insurance scheme in two districts of northeast Ethiopia: a community-based, cross-sectional study

Objectives To examine how clients perceived the quality of healthcare they received and identify associated factors both at the individual and facility levels. Design A community-based, cross-sectional study. Setting Two rural districts of northeast Ethiopia, Tehulederie and Kallu. Participants 1081 rural households who had ever been enrolled in community-based health insurance and visited a health centre at least once in the previous 12 months. Furthermore, 194 healthcare providers participated in the study to provide cluster-level data. Outcome measures The outcome variable of interest was the perceived quality of care, which was measured using a 17-item scale. Respondents were asked to rate the degree to which they agreed on 5-point response items relating to their experiences with healthcare in the outpatient departments of nearby health centres. A multilevel linear regression analysis was used to identify predictors of perceived quality of care. Results The mean perceived quality of care was 70.28 (SD=8.39). Five dimensions of perceived quality of care were extracted from the factor analysis, with the patient-provider communication dimension having the highest mean score (M=77.84, SD=10.12), and information provision having the lowest (M=64.67, SD=13.87). Wealth status, current insurance status, perceived health status, presence of chronic illness and time to a recent health centre visit were individual-level variables that showed a significant association with the outcome variable. At the cluster level, the work experience of healthcare providers, patient volume and an interaction term between patient volume and staff job satisfaction also showed a significant association. Conclusions Much work remains to improve the quality of care, especially on information provision and access to care quality dimensions. A range of individual-level and cluster-level characteristics influence the perceived quality of care. For a better quality of care, it is vital to optimise the patient-provider ratio and enhance staff job satisfaction.

Automated summary

This study examines the perceived quality of healthcare and its associated factors at both the individual and facility levels in rural areas of northeast Ethiopia. The findings indicate that there is still much work needed to improve the quality of care, particularly in information provision and access to care dimensions. Individual-level and cluster-level characteristics were found to influence the perceived quality of care, highlighting the importance of optimizing the patient-provider ratio and enhancing staff job satisfaction for better quality of care.