Public-Private Partnership in Health Care: A Comparative Cross-sectional Study of Perceived Quality of Care Among Parents of Children Admitted in Two Government District-hospitals, Southern India

Introduction: Perceived better quality of care draws lower socioeconomic classes of Indians to more expensive private setups, leading to poverty illness poverty cycle. Urgent measures need to be taken to improve perceived quality of public hospitals. The present study compares the difference in perceived quality of care among parents of children admitted at two government district hospitals. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional, comparative, questionnaire based study was conducted between February 2011 and February 2012 at Government medical college hospitals of two district headquarters in South-India: one with private-public-partnership (PPP-model); another directly operated by government - Public Hospital-model (PH-model). A total of 461 inpatients from the PH model hospital and 580 from the PPP model hospital were eligible. Patients who left against advice (LAMA) (n= 44 in PH and 19 in PPP) and expired (n= 25 in PH and 59 in PPP) were excluded. Fourteen incomplete forms from PH and 10 from PPP model hospital were also excluded. Responders rated perception on a 1-5 scale in each domain: accessibility of health-facility, time spent waiting, manner and quality of physician, manner and quality of nurse, manner and quality of supporting staff, perception of equipment, explanation of treatment details and general comfort. The responders also rated overall satisfaction on a 1-10 scale. In the 1-5 scale, rating> 4 in each domain was considered good. Rating> 8 in 1-10 scale was considered satisfaction. Results: Responders from PPP-model hospital were significantly more satisfied than those from PH-model {n= 529 (91.2%) vs. n= 148 (32.1%) p< 0.001}. This was true even when controlled for age-group, sex, maternal education, familytype, days of hospital-stay and socioeconomic class {O.R.(CI) = 23.58 (16.13-34.48); p< 0.001} by binary logistic regression model. In the PPP-model hospital the time spent waiting for treatment {4.28(2.07-8.82), p<. 001} and manner of support staff {3.64(1.02-12.99), p= 0.04} significantly predicted satisfaction. In PH-model hospital explanation given regarding treatment details significantly predicted overall satisfaction {2.99(1.61-5.54), p<. 001}. Conclusion: Perceived quality of hospital care, as evidenced by the satisfaction and perception ratings of responders, was better in PPP-model hospital. This model could be emulated in developing countries to draw patients of lower socioeconomic classes to tertiary-care public hospitals which are less expensive.