A comparative study on person-centered care practice between public and private General Hospitals in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

BACKGROUND

Person-centered care practice has not yet been fully adopted in low- and middle-income nations such as Ethiopia. It focuses on improving several areas of patient-physician interaction. Despite Ethiopia's rapid growth in healthcare facilities, there is insufficient data available on care practices.

METHOD

A facility-based comparative cross-sectional study was conducted in selected public and private general hospitals in Addis Ababa from May 26 to July 26, 2023. A multistage sampling technique was employed to select the study participants. The data were collected using an interviewer-administered structured questionnaire, entered into Epi Info-7, and exported to SPSS version 27 for analysis. Bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were performed to identify significant factors associated with care practices.

RESULTS

A total of 848 patients were involved, with a response rate of 99.5%. The overall magnitude of good care practice was 52.8%, with 34.8% in public hospitals and 70.9% in private hospitals. Factors associated with good care practices in private hospitals included hospital attractiveness (AOR: 3.2; 95% CI: 1.6-6.5), ease of access to services (AOR: 12.1; 95% CI: 6.2-23.3), and privacy of access and care (AOR: 10.89; 95% CI: 5.60-21.19). In contrast, factors associated with good healthcare practices in public hospitals were perceived intimacy with the provider (AOR: 8.85; 95% CI: 4.50-17.43), privacy in accessing care (AOR: 12.1; 95% CI: 6.62-22.16), and the provision of medication information (AOR: 4.39; 95% CI: 2.40-8.03).

CONCLUSION

Overall, 52.8% of participants rated person-centered care practices as good, with private hospitals in Addis Ababa (70.9%) demonstrating a higher prevalence of person-centered care practices compared to public hospitals (34.8%). The factors associated with healthcare practices in both public and private hospitals include hospital type, hospital attractiveness, ease of access to services, privacy in accessing care, perceived intimacy with the provider, and the provision of medication information. We recommend targeted improvements in public hospitals to enhance the quality of PCC.