A comparison of the users' opinions of the services provided by Zammit Clapp Hospital
Many geriatric hospitals, as is the case of Zammit Clapp Hospital, are specifically devoted to pr... more Many geriatric hospitals, as is the case of Zammit Clapp Hospital, are specifically devoted to preventing life-long hospitalisation or institutionalisation. However, achieving this goal is no easy task. It requires much effort and a constant monitoring of the quality of medical, technical, inter-personal and supportive services provided by the hospital to its patients. An important part of this auditing exercise involves the securing of the users' opinion of the type and quality of services provided. Due to the difficulty in eliciting information from the elderly patient, it is not rare for this information to be obtained from the patients' relatives and taken to represent patient (users) opinion. This study attempted to investigate the use of relative opinion in lieu of patient opinion by verifying whether or not second user opinion (relative) accurately represents first user opinion (patient). Following this line of reasoning, the study identified four user groups the able...
The application of the repertory grid technique made it possible to capture the mental categoriza... more The application of the repertory grid technique made it possible to capture the mental categorization by which maternity care services are judged. Conceptualization of the expectation standard, defined as estimates of anticipated performance, led to the identification of 14 attributes. These include: reliability, responsiveness, competence, access, courtesy, communication, credibility, security, relationship, tangibles, control, cost, naturalness and quality. The definitions made use of the prospective consumer's own verbal labels. In addition, it was found that maternity care services were not perceived as one continuous process. Three distinct categorizations were identified, that is: before, during, and after the birth of the baby. This suggests that prospective consumers employ the service quality attributes, according to one of the above.
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Papers by Saviour Gauci