Effects of Communication On Quality Service Delivery in Mission Hospitals in Meru County, Kenya

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Communication is one of the most critical management practices in an organization. It is argued that managers spend over 70 percent of their time communicating. This is because without effective communication, understanding is lost or compromised in the ‘noise’ and mess that is everyday work life. Communication is effective if done well downwards, upwards and sideways from seniors, subordinates and peers respectively and effective feedback given. The means or channels of communication should also be very clear and short to avoid long bureaucracies and excessive routes that compromise the quality of what is being communicated. The health sector in Kenya is highly regulated by both the Government and relevant professional bodies to ensure quality is maintained in training of medical caregivers and in dispensing services. Three major categories of healthcare service providers exist in Kenya – public, private and mission/faith-based organizations with variants in between. Meru County, one of the forty-seven counties in Kenya, is situated almost at the center of the country and has all these major categories of hospitals. Within the mission hospitals in Meru County, besides the government and professional bodies, close regulation is also practiced by faith-based organizations that sponsor the hospitals. The purpose of this study was to establish the nature and effect of communication in providing quality service delivery in the mission hospitals in Meru County, Kenya. The study was formulated as a survey to cover all the eight mission hospitals namely Nkubu, Chaaria, Kiirua, Maua, Mutuati, Tigania, Igoji and Gitoro. Piloting was done at Wamba mission hospital in Isiolo county to ensure validity of study tools. Descriptive study design was used. Major stakeholders in the hospitals were targeted as respondents including CEOs, Human resource and public relations officers and other staff as internal stakeholders while patients, suppliers and neighbours formed external stakeholders. A total of 128 were interviewed as a representative sample. A drop and pick method was used where questionnaires for each hospital were delivered and distributed to the potential respondents. Some respondents like patients and neighbours were assisted by researchers to fill in the questionnaires to avoid bothering them unnecessarily. Data was analyzed quantitatively using SPSS Version 23 and results described using descriptive statistics and presented in tables. The study found that communication had a significant positive affect on quality-of-service delivery (R=0.498, F=6.922, P=0.00) in mission hospitals.Effective communication and customer care was lauded as a critical consideration in dealing with clients and was emphasized among all levels of staff of mission hospitals to ensure sustainability of quality service delivery. The study recommended further analysis of private and public hospitals on the same parameters for comparison.