Differences in Perception of Healthcare Management between Patients and Professionals.

Area of Science:

• Healthcare Management
• Patient Experience Research
• Occupational Health

Background:

• Patient perceptions and healthcare professional culture are key indicators of care quality.
• Understanding the alignment between patient and professional views is crucial for quality improvement initiatives.
• This study examines perceptions within a mutual insurance company (MC Mutual) prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate and compare patient and health professional perceptions of healthcare quality.
• To measure the degree of coincidence between these perceptions across eight key dimensions.
• To identify areas of agreement and disagreement to inform quality enhancement strategies.

Main Methods:

• Secondary analysis of routine data from MC Mutual's patient perception surveys and professional evaluations (2017-2019).
• Comparison of perceptions across eight dimensions: results, coordination, trust, information, facilities, diagnosis confidence, and treatment confidence.
• Statistical analysis to identify coincident and divergent perceptions.

Main Results:

• Patients and professionals agreed on positive perceptions of treatment confidence and negative perceptions of coordination and diagnosis confidence.
• Patients rated treatment confidence lower than professionals did.
• Professionals rated results, information, and infrastructure lower than patients did.

Conclusions:

• Healthcare managers should reinforce training for agreed-upon positive aspects (treatment) and address negative coincident aspects (coordination, diagnosis).
• Targeted interventions are needed for dimensions where perceptions diverge, particularly those rated lower by professionals (results, information, infrastructure).
• Regular review of patient and professional surveys is vital for supervising health quality in occupational mutual insurance settings.