Abstract:
This study assess enrollees’ perception of Health care facility’s (HCFs) physical structure and equipment quality across 9 accredited National health insurance/ Health maintenance organisation (NHIS-HMO) providing healthcare facilities within the 3 local government areas in Lagos, Nigeria.
Anchored on the phenomenology of time consciousness and the filter theory of attention, the study methodology was triangulated using survey method and in-depth interview. A total of 252 questionnaires and 5 in-depth interviews (IDIs) were used to elicit data from selected respondents using simple random and convenient sampling technique. There were differences between the survey result and the in-depth interview (IDIs) responses in terms of structural awareness in contrast with access to treatment equipments. 61.1% of the respondents agreed that the physical environment of the HCF was conducive, 61.5% agreed to the presence of standard and functional medical equipments in the HCF. With regards to the quality rating, 55.1% perceived the quality of HCFs physical structure and equipment fairly positive while 30.6% of the respondents perceived it negatively. From the group comparisons, the Chi-Square results (P<0.01, χ2 (16) = 66.750) revealed significant correlations between quality of HCFs physical environment and equipment and enrollees perception. The Spearman’s correlation was also positive at .064. These findings indicate that the tangible aspects of healthcare service are significant in health outcomes and should be given priority to ensure consistency in quality health promotion.
