Healthcare governance and patients' perception of service quality in Ghana

Abstract

This present study examines the effect of healthcare governance on the patients' perception of service quality of hospitals in Ghana. The study employs a cross-sectional regression model. The results of the study show that hospitals with governing boards are perceived to deliver better health service quality compared to hospitals without a governing board. This demonstrates the importance of hospital boards in the provision of better quality of care. In terms of the hospital board characteristics, we observe that hospitals with smaller board size, those with separate roles of the CEO and board chair, those with more female representation on the board, and those that hold frequent board meetings tend to provide better quality of healthcare. We also found that not-for-profit mission and for-profit private hospitals deliver better service quality compared to public hospitals. The results also reveal that interacting mission-based and private hospitals with effective board characteristics leads to better service quality. This paper examines the issue from a developing country context. The findings of this study suggest that structuring an effective hospital board is important in delivering good quality of healthcare.