Quantitative and Qualitative Research

Introduction

Patient satisfaction surveys are critical to the determination of areas of improvement in the healthcare delivery process. It involves the evaluation of patients’ perception of various aspects affecting the quality of healthcare including the access to care, waiting time, staff friendliness, and recommendations for improvement (Al-Abri, & Al-Balushi, 2014). The success of patient satisfaction survey is dependent on adoption of the right methodology of undertaking research and formulation of questions.

The mixed methodology approach is appropriate for conducting patient satisfaction surveys. This method integrates the qualitative and quantitative research techniques to collect comprehensive data about the topic in question (Glaser, & Strauss, 2017). The selection of the research participants is crucial because it determines the quality of collected information. As such, the opportunistic purposive sampling technique will be used to recruit the first 200 patients to participate in the research. A semi-structured questionnaire will be administered with questions focusing on four variables including accessing care, friendliness of staff, the patient wait time, and recommendations that can be used to improve care. The 1uantitative data will be collected using a Likert scale measuring the level of agreeableness or disagreeableness to statements. The research will be guided by the following questions:

Accessibility to Care

• It is easy to schedule hospital appointments?
• Do the doctors spend enough time evaluating the patients’ conditions?
• Do the doctors and nurses provide prompt assistance to the patients?
• We all the patient’s questions were satisfactorily answered?
• Are there any additional comments about the services offered?

Staff Friendliness

• Were the staff polite and friendly during the visit?
• Was it easy to approach the staff with questions?
• Do the staff create a comfortable environment that eases my fears of the disease?
• What additional concerns did you have with our services?

Patient Wait Time

• Were you given an appointment date by the hospital staff?
• Did your appointment take place as scheduled?
• Was the doctor forced to change the appointment to another date to suit your schedule?
• How satisfied are you with hospital staff timeliness?

Recommendations

• What changes would you recommend for the hospital to take to improve its services?