Quality of Health Services and Patients’ Satisfaction in Accredited and Non-Accredited Hospitals
The majority of hospitals follow voluntary or mandatory accreditation standards; these standards are widely believed to improve the quality of hospital services (QHS) and thereby increase patient satisfaction (PS). The current descriptive-comparative study explored patients’ opinions and beliefs with regard to QHS and PS at accredited and non-accredited Jordanian public hospitals in 2016. Data of discharged patients were collected using a structured questionnaire; 250 patients from four hospitals participated (response rate: 83%). SPSS v.15 was used calculate mean values, standard deviations, and Pearson’s correlation coefficient, and to conduct t-tests. Patients indicated medium levels of QHS and PS in both accredited and non-accredited hospitals; additionally, QHS and PS were significantly correlated (p ≤ 0.05) in both types of hospitals. These results suggest that QHS and PS require improvement in all Jordanian public hospitals; future research should identify causal relationships between implementing accreditation standards and patient satisfaction.