A Comparative Study of Government Hospital and Private Nursing Home (Private Hospital) Utilization in Kathmandu valley Nepal

Abstract

Background: The New National Health Policy, 1991 has opened the door for private sector involvement in health services. Since then numbers of private hospitals have been established inside and outside of Kathmandu valley. People have much faith in these private hospitals for quality of services they provide. Whereas due to various reasons government hospitals have always become the subject of private criticisms. So this study was conducted to determine the factors which affect the utilization of these two types of hospitals. Methods: Three government and seven nursing homes were selected inside Kathmandu valley according to their service availability. 201 patients each from government hospitals and private hospitals were interviewed with pre-constructed questionnaire. Patients who had been admitted in hospitals for at least three days were chosen for this study. Editing and coding was done and data was entered and analyzed using Epi-info program. Results: Data showed that the economically productive age groups 25-65 years of age and inhabitants of Kathmandu valley and housewives have been predominantly occupying both types of hospitals. Ethnicity, education status, occupation, means of transportation and types of health problems, days advice to stay, days stayed inside and outside, cost paid, reasons of selection, persons advice and satisfaction levels were found to be significantly different between the two types of hospitals. Conclusions: Quality of services in both types of hospitals needed to be improved to make patients more satisfied. Government should correct the brain drain problem of qualified and experienced doctors from government hospitals to private hospitals in order to attract patients to government hospitals. Keywords: government hospitals; private hospitals; utilizers.