Responsiveness of inpatient care and provision of dignity: Insights from a patient experience survey in Israel

Abstract

The paper contributes to the literature on the responsiveness of care, patient dignity, and disparities in the provision of health services. It does so by evaluating indicators of patient responsiveness while focusing on aspects of dignified treatment. The data were taken from the Patient Experience Survey of General Public Hospitals conducted by the Israel Ministry of Health in 2018. The analysis focuses on two indicators of responsiveness (i.e., actual) and three indicators of patient satisfaction with responsiveness (i.e., satisfaction). The analysis reveals that variations of these indicators are associated with patients' sociodemographic attributes and the hospitals' characteristics. However, while the likelihood of the actual provision of responsive care tends to be lower for vulnerable patients, the satisfaction of vulnerable populations with responsiveness tends to be higher. The data also reveal that the likelihood of responsive treatment and patient satisfaction with this tends to be lower for patients hospitalized in smaller hospitals and hospitals located in the periphery. The findings and their meaning are discussed in the context of studies on responsiveness of care, health disparities, dignified treatment, and patient satisfaction with the provision of health services.