Private Hospitals In Malaysia Research Articles

Exploring the lived and coping experiences of patients with kidney failure undergoing haemodialysis in Malaysian private hospitals.

Chronic kidney disease is associated with structural and functional abnormalities in the kidney caused by a range of different aetiologies. The study's purpose was to explore the lived and coping experiences of patients with kidney failure undergoing haemodialysis in three private hospitals in Malaysia. Applying an interpretative phenomenological analysis using a hermeneutic phenomenological design to derive common meaning from participants lived and coping experiences. In the study, data were collected using a semi-structured interview guide from 15 purposefully sampled patients with kidney failure. Data were analysed using the interpretative phenomenological analysis principles. Patients with kidney failure reported emotional distress, life limitations, financial burdens, knowledge deficits and varying perceptions of the haemodialysis treatment. Body image changes, financial assistance, social support and hope were coping strategies used by patients with kidney failure. It was identified that patients with kidney failure used unique coping strategies such as applying perfume and using clothes to conceal the impact of haemodialysis on their bodies, which is not comprehensively discussed in published literature. Nurses who deliver care to patients with kidney failure should focus on mitigating emotional distress, increasing knowledge related to kidney failure and improving perception of the haemodialysis treatment. Delivering and providing social support are indispensable nursing roles to help patients cope with haemodialysis treatment.

Commentary: Exploring the lived and coping experiences of patients with kidney failure undergoing haemodialysis in Malaysian private hospitals.

Commentary: Exploring the lived and coping experiences of patients with kidney failure undergoing haemodialysis in Malaysian private hospitals.

Mediating Role of Social Media in Medical Tourism Visit Decision: A Behavioural Perspective

Social media (SM) has become the main communication medium for both personal and professional communication on a global scale. Despite its many benefits, it is challenging to persuade consumers to accept and use SM as a platform for exchanging health-related information. In contrast to other businesses where individuals utilise social media to freely share their real-life experiences, marketing medical tourism through interactive communication creates several hurdles owing to sensitive matters such as patient health and underlying risk. Healthcare providers' advertising activities and medical tourists' choices to visit are becoming increasingly reliant on social media platforms. Potential medical tourists should use this technology to benefit from SM and learn more about health care. The goal of this research was to see if SM impacts a person's decision to travel to a medical tourism destination. The researcher’s major focus was on social media platforms as a mediator element for medical tourists, as well as their effect on decision-making. To better understand how new technologies are adopted and utilised, the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) and Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) were used to research new technology adoption and user behaviour, respectively. These will serve as the study's fundamental hypotheses. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) and Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) - Partial Least Squares (PLS) will be utilised for data analysis. This study's participants will be medical tourists seeking treatment in Malaysian private hospitals.

Classification and visualization: Twitter sentiment analysis of Malaysia’s private hospitals

Malaysia has many private’s hospitals. Thus, feedback is important to improve service quality, becoming reviews for other patients. Reviews use the channel service provided on social media, such as Twitter. Nevertheless, online reviews are unstructured and enormous in volume, which leads to difficulties in comparing private hospitals. In addition, no single websites compare private hospitals based on users’ interests, bilingual reviews, and less time-consuming. Due to that, this study aims to classify and visualize the Twitter sentiment analysis of private hospitals in Malaysia. The scope focuses on five factors: 1) administrative procedure, 2) cost, 3) communication, 4) expertise, and 5) service. Term frequency-inverse document frequency is used for text mining, information retrieval techniques, and the Naïve Bayes, a machine learning algorithm for the classification. The user can visualize the specified state’s private hospitals and compare them with any selected state. The system’s functionality and usability have been tested to ensure it meets the objectives. Functionality testing proved that the private hospital’s Twitter sentiment could be predicted based on the training and testing data as intended, with 77.13% and 77.96% accuracy for English and Bahasa Melayu, respectively, while the system usability scale based on the usability testing resulted in an average final score of 95.42%.

Exploratory Study on the Compensation Practices in Private Hospitals for Clinical Specialists in Malaysia

INTRODUCTION: Fee-for-service (FFS) has been the main payment method for clinical specialists around the world. However, until most recently, several payment methods for doctors, particularly clinical specialists, such as salary, pay for performance and blended remuneration of the above models have been researched. This mechanism is being used to increase the level of quality and value of healthcare services in the health sector. Despite increasing interest in these alternative payment methods, there is limited research about the payment method offered to clinical specialists in Malaysia. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Using qualitative interview with 15 private clinical specialists and 4 hospital administrators working in private hospitals in Malaysia, we explored the existing payment methods offered to private clinical specialists by private hospitals. RESULTS: Our study found that four payment methods were used which were FFS, salary-based, salary-based plus incentives and pool system. Majority of the clinical specialists interviewed were under the FFS payment method. New emerging payment methods which include salary-based and salary-based plus incentives were implemented in recent years, while the pool system was confined to certain specialities. CONCLUSION: The private hospitals in Malaysia provides different payment methods to the private clinical specialists which includes FFS, salary-based, salary-based plus incentives and pool system. These findings can help policymakers to explore the potential of various payment methods in the near future.

UNLOCKING THE POWER OF SPIRITUAL INTELLIGENCE: ENHANCING THE PROFESSIONAL QUALITY OF LIFE OF CRITICAL CARE NURSES IN PRIVATE HOSPITALS

Caring for critically ill patients may have a negative impact on nurses’ professional quality of life (ProQOL), including their compassion satisfaction (CS), burnout (BO), and secondary traumatic stress (STS), leading to nurses’ turnover and concerns about the quality of care provided. Spiritual intelligence (SI) has been considered an important quality in most professions in recent years, but there is limited research on its role in contributing to the ProQOL of nurses. Therefore, it is crucial to understand the role of SI and its relationship with professional nurses’ ProQOL. This study aimed to determine the level of SI and ProQOL among critical care nurses in private hospitals. Followed by examining the relationship between SI and demographic data towards the dimension of ProQOL. A multisite study using a cross-sectional design was conducted on 136 nurses working at three private hospitals in Malaysia from March 2021 to March 2022 via an online survey. Data was gathered using the Spiritual Intelligence Self-Report Inventory (SISRI-24) and the Professional Quality of Life Version 5 (ProQOL-5), and descriptive and multivariate analyses were run using SPSS. SI among nurses was found at moderate to high levels of (61.30 ± 12.95), and the majority nurses had a moderate level of CS (72.1%), BO (77.2%), and STS (75.0%). In regression, there was a statistically significant relationship between SI toward CS (β = 0.61, t = 9.79, p < 0.01) and BO (β = -0.31, t = -4.19, p < 0.01), suggesting that CS levels were significantly higher with increasing SI levels, and BO levels significantly reduced with increasing SI levels. Also, female nurses are predicted to have a higher level of BO than male nurses (β = 0.20, t = 2.77, p = 0.01). The study’s results suggested that a holistic strategic approach is needed to improve CS and mitigate the negative component of ProQOL (BO and STS) by utilizing SI. It is hoped that nursing education institutes and hospital organizations can contribute to cultivating SI among nurses with extra consideration given to female nurses.

Perceived Leader’s Support, Performance Feedback and Employee Engagement in Malaysian Private Hospitals

Employee engagement is a crucial factor for organisations for its contribution to the organisation's development and sustainability. This research was conducted to examine whether or not perceived leader's support ("PLS") and performance feedback ("PF") have significant relationships with employee engagement. This research was also carried out to empirically prove which factors cause or are the main reason for employee engagement. Additionally, this research examines if there is a significant difference of opinion between genders about perceived leader's support as well as the level of employee engagement at Malaysian Private Hospitals. The results show that, although both determinant factors (PLS and PF) have a significant relationship with employee engagement (p<0.001), only PLS causes employee engagement (p<0.001, t-value>1.96). This research also proves that there is no difference of opinion between genders about the importance of PLS in the workplace. Furthermore, it has also been proven that there is no difference in the level of employee engagement between male and female employees at Malaysian Private Hospitals. It is hoped that the results of this research will benefit hospitals in Malaysia, mainly private ones. This is because employee engagement in private hospitals could help improve private hospitals' performance and reputation, thus attracting a larger number of patients as well as generating more revenues, all of which can contribute to Malaysia's economic well-being.

WILL BRANDING ENGAGE PERPETUAL BONDING IN HEALTHCARE?

A brand is the promise of value and is imperative in all aspects of the industry. Retaining existing customers and attracting new customers has always been the challenge faced by service-based industries, which include private healthcare, primarily in hospitals. As a niche sector, private hospitals' tasks address demanding customer expectations. Based on the past reviews of the literature, this study proposes a few aspects to be investigated in the context of private hospitals in Malaysia. Data was collected and distributed using an online survey. The model was validated using Smart PLS (version 3.3.2) software and SPSS for data analysis. The sampling technique used was non-probability. The analysis revealed that brand trust significantly correlates with customer brand engagement which subsequently influences brand equity in private hospitals and is moderated by service quality for critical incidence. These findings give insight to policymakers, the healthcare industry, mainly private hospitals and academic fields to discover the influences to contemplate in this sector and remain competitive strategically.

THE LEVEL OF INDONESIA'S PATIENT'S CONFIDENCE TOWARD PRIVATE HOSPITAL IN MALAYSIA

To examine the level of Indonesia ‘s patients’ confidence toward private hospitals in Malaysia. The under present literature regarding confidence in the healthcare context has motivated the researcher to research in this area. This study employed the purposive sampling technique. The Questionnaire was distributed to 537 patients from Indonesia who visited private hospitals in Penang, Kuala Lumpur, and Melaka at least for the second times visit. This is a descriptive study that assesses the high or low level of Indonesia patient’s confidence toward the healthcare service provided by the private hospitals in Malaysia. This study utilized SPSS 26 version as a data analysis tool. After analysing the data, it reveals that Indonesia’s patients had high confidence in the healthcare service delivered by Malaysia’s Private hospitals. From six items that as are the reflection of patients’ confidence, the feeling of comfort, familiarity, trust, and satisfaction are among the highest factors that determine the confidence of patients from Indonesia. In addition, all the items’ scales of patient’s confidence have adequate reliability. It is highly suggested for Malaysia’s private hospital to provide high value on quality of healthcare service and develop a good relationship with the patients from Indonesia to boost the confidence of the patients to use the healthcare services in Malaysia. This study expected can give a valuable contribution to the development of patient’s confidence in medical tourism and the national healthcare context.

Job Satisfaction and Commitment among Registered Nurses Employed in Selected Private Hospitals in Malaysia

Background: Job satisfaction and professional commitment are job-related attitudes that have garnered widespread attention from researchers worldwide. Such interest stems from the finding that committed and satisfied employees are typically high performers who contribute substantially to organizational productivity. This study assessed the relationship between job satisfaction and professional commitment among registered nurses in selected private hospitals in Perak, Malaysia. Methods: A quantitative cross-sectional descriptive design and a convenient sampling method were used for data collection. The questionnaire employed in the study comprised three components. An anonymous self-administered questionnaire consisting of multiple-choice questions and the Likert Scale was distributed to 150 eligible registered nurses working in several private hospitals in Perak. Descriptive statistics were then used to analyze the data collected. An independent t-test or one-way ANOVA was used to investigate the relationship between demographic factors, job satisfaction, and commitment. Results: The findings show registered nurses had moderate job satisfaction. The implementation of the corporate policy had the highest satisfaction recorded (4/5). The other 19 items recorded a score of 3.01-3.83 on a 5-point Likert scale, signifying that job satisfaction was moderate among nurses. Contrarily, job commitment had a higher rating, with 4/6 items rated &gt;4/5. There was no statistically significant correlation between demographic factors and job satisfaction. Nevertheless, the Pearson correlation indicated a weak yet significant connection between job commitment and job satisfaction (r=0.361) among nurses, reaching significance at the 0.001 level. Conclusion: The findings of this study suggest registered nurses exhibited moderate job satisfaction and commitment towards their work and the organization. Increasing career advancement and promotion and using innovative approaches in nursing care are the main factors in improving nurses' job satisfaction. Organizations must provide more career opportunities and involve nurses in evidence-based nursing practice to improve job satisfaction

Factors Associated with Job Stress among Employees in Food Service Department at Selected Private Hospitals in Malaysia

The institutional food services industry is one of the most important sectors in Malaysia. In conjunction with institutional food services industry roles that provide services either in the government or public institutional operations, this industry has rapidly expanded in the coming years. Hence, the numbers of employees requested in this industry are getting high in demand in supplying services throughout the institutional operations. Despite the high demand in this industry, the exposure of job stress to the employee can cause turnover. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to examine the factors that contribute towards to job stress among food service employees at the private hospitals and identify the most influential factor that associated with the stress. This study also designed to examine the relationship between demographic characteristics of employees and job stress. The factors that used to conduct this study are workload, salary and working environment. This study used a quantitative approach through a self-administered survey questionnaire. 180 sets of questionnaires distributed to employees who were currently working in food service department at private hospitals. There were only 126 questionnaires returned and valid for further analysis. Data obtained were analyzed by using Statistic Packages for Social Science (SPSS) latest version. Based on the analysis, workload is the most influential factor of job stress and followed by the working environment as a second influential factor. Meanwhile, the salary factor did not significantly influence job stress among employees in this industry. Findings of study hopes will help the managers or owners in the institutional food service industry particularly the private hospitals to highlight these factors that lead to employee job stress. Additionally, the importance of this study is to encourage managers in focusing on these three factors in order to implement strategies to minimize stress at workplace.

Strategic Management Accounting Information and Performance: Mediating Effect of Knowledge Management

Research Aims: The objective of this study is to examine the relationship ‎between Strategic Management Accounting (SMA) information, Knowledge Management (KM), and the performance of ‎Malaysian hospitals. Design/methodology/approach: A survey is employed, and data is collected using self- administered questionnaires. Responses from 95 Malaysian private hospitals were ‎analysed using Partial Least Squares (PLS) 3.0. Research Findings: The findings indicate that SMA ‎information positively affects ‎performance, and KM mediates the ‎relationship between SMA information and interpretation. Theoretical Contribution/Originality: This study utilised the Resource-Based View (RBV) theory to explain SMA information as a resource and KM as a capability that impacts the competitive advantage of organisations. This study ‎contributes to the line of literature on SMA information and ‎KM in the healthcare sector. Managerial Implication in the South East Asian Context: Findings of this study can be used by managers to improve SMA ‎information and KM in their organisations. Research limitation &amp; Implications: Firstly, the data were collected from a single sector, the healthcare sector, in a developing economy and focused on hospitals. It ‎may be inappropriate for the results of this study to be used for other sectors, such as industrial sectors or in other countries. ‎Secondly, the results from path analysis do not explain for sure how ‎these independent variables influence the dependent variables. ‎Although the path analysis can reveal the significant relationships between the independent and dependent variables, it is insufficient to provide subjective information that may need to ‎be addressed using a qualitative method. Keywords: strategic management accounting, information, knowledge management, healthcare, hospital

Obstetrics Patient Loyalty: A Study of Malaysian Private Hospitals

The purpose of this study is to examine the path of obstetrics service quality and patient loyalty. The service quality encompasses doctors’ knowledge, nurse professionalism, diagnostic procedures, perceived price and healthscape. This study is found to be of interest because there have been limited studies conducted in Malaysia concerning patient loyalty for obstetrics services in private hospitals. The sample size comprises 419 patients from ten private hospitals in five states of Peninsular Malaysia. Data were collected and analysed using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). The results indicate that diagnostic procedures, doctor’s knowledge and perceived price, have a significant positive relationship with patient loyalty. In contrast, nurses’ professionalism and healthscape had no significant impact on patient loyalty. Further, the Importance-Performance Matrix Analysis (IPMA) results contribute as an insight for the management to overcome and improve on identified areas with low performance. The findings of this study are endorsed by the IPMA that the importance and performance of diagnostic procedures are high in contributing to patient loyalty for the obstetrics service in Malaysia.

Patient Satisfaction with Nursing Care Quality in a Malaysian Private Hospital's Medical-surgical Ward

Patient Satisfaction with Nursing Care Quality in a Malaysian Private Hospital's Medical-surgical Ward

Effect of Practice Environment on Nurse Reported Quality and Patient Safety: The Mediation Role of Person-Centeredness.

This study aims to explore the potential mediation role of person-centeredness between the effects of the work environment and nurse reported quality and patient safety. A quantitative cross-sectional survey collected data from 1055 nurses, working in medical and surgical units, in twelve Malaysian private hospitals. The data collection used structured questionnaires. The Hayes macro explored the mediation effect of person-centeredness between the associations of work environment dimensions and care outcomes, controlling nurses’ demographics and practice characteristics. A total of 652 nurses responded completely to the survey (61.8% response rate). About 47.7% of nurses worked 7-h shifts, and 37.0% were assigned more than 15 patients. Higher workload was associated with unfavorable outcomes. Nurses working in 12-h shifts reported a lower work environment rating (3.46 ± 0.41, p < 0.01) and person-centered care (3.55 ± 0.35, p < 0.01). Nurses assigned to more than 15 patients were less likely to report a favorable practice environment (3.53 ± 0.41, p < 0.05), perceived lower person-centered care (3.61 ± 0.36, p < 0.01), and rated lower patient safety (3.54 ± 0.62, p < 0.05). Person-centeredness mediates the effect of nurse work environment dimensions on quality and patient safety. Medical and surgical nurses, working in a healthy environment, had a high level of person-centeredness, which, in turn, positively affected the reported outcomes. The function of person-centeredness was to complement the effects of the nurse work environment on care outcomes. Improving the nurse work environment (task-oriented) with a high level of person-centeredness (patient-oriented) was a mechanism through which future initiatives could improve nursing care and prevent patient harm.

Obstetrics services in Malaysia: factors influencing patient loyalty

PurposeThis study aims to investigate the link of functional service quality (hospital’s reputation, administrative procedures, trustworthiness, patient-care provider relationship and waiting time), satisfaction and patient loyalty on the obstetrics services in private health-care in Malaysia.Design/methodology/approachA total of 419 mothers who had obtained obstetrics services had participated in this study in a continuous and coordinated manner. The study was conducted in 10 private hospitals in Malaysia throughout April 2018.FindingsResults show that providing excellent service had increased the level of patient satisfaction and achieved patient loyalty. Patients tend to switch to other obstetricians if they are unhappy with the current services that are being offered. The findings showed that patient satisfaction was found to be mediating the relationship between hospital reputation and patient loyalty; trustworthiness and patient loyalty; patient care relationship and patient loyalty; and waiting time and patient loyalty. However, this study also found that administrative procedures do not influence patient satisfaction significantly.Practical implicationsThe outcome of this study able to assist the management of the private hospitals to have more operational and practical strategies that would enhance their service quality for the betterment in their services for their patients in this competitive industry.Originality/valueThis paper provides patients’ perception of their loyalty towards obstetrics services offered by private hospitals in Malaysia.

Comparison between conventional dosing versus personalized pharmacokinetic dosing of vancomycin: a pilot study from a Malaysian private hospital

Pharmacist led vancomycin dosing is not a common practice in private hospital settings of the Malaysian healthcare system. The lack of this pharmacist led system has led to conventional vancomycin dosing without considering the differences in patients pharmacokinetic parameters. This study aims to compare the differences in vancomycin doses between conventional dosing and pharmacist-led personalized pharmacokinetic dosing. A retrospective pilot study was conducted on inpatient adults who were prescribed with intravenous vancomycin in a private hospital. Personalized vancomycin doses were retrospectively calculated by using the pharmacokinetic parameters and was then compared with the actual conventional doses used in the patients. The area under concentration curve over 24 hours/minimum inhibitory concentration (AUC24/MIC) ratio achieved by the doses was also compared. The targeted AUC24/MIC ratio was 400-600 to ensure efficacy and safety of the therapy. A total of 24 patients with a median age of 55.50 years were conveniently sampled. The patients were mostly male (58.3%) and were admitted to the neurosurgical ward (33.3%). Vancomycin was mainly prescribed as empirical treatment (58.3%) for a median treatment period of 5.00 days (IQR 4.00 – 7.00 days). The conventional doses had significant (p &lt; 0.001) lower median total daily dose (2000 mg versus 2500 mg) and lower AUC24/MIC ratio (385 versus 495) as compared to personalized doses. In conclusion, the personalized pharmacokinetic dosing method was significantly more able to achieve the targeted AUC24/MIC ratio. Vancomycin personalized dosing should be considered in the Malaysian private hospital setting.

Factors Affecting the Effectiveness of Employees’ Performance Appraisal in Private Hospitals in Malaysia

Many organizations conduct performance appraisal to evaluate their employees’ productivity and performance. Effective performance appraisal leads to accurate reviews and thereafter some compensation for the employees who have performed and contributed to their organizations. An effective performance appraisal process is necessary to ensure accurate performance appraisal outcomes. In year 2016, the number of private hospitals in Malaysia is recorded higher than the public hospitals where 216 as compared to 153 (Ministry of Health Malaysia, 2013). Seeing that the healthcare standards demand is high in the private sectors, it is crucial to align employees’ standard of performance with the organizational standards, especially through effective performance appraisal which able to keep track of employees’ performance standard. This study examines the factors affect the effectiveness of employees’ performance appraisal in private hospitals in Malaysia. The factors are performance appraisal process which included planning, controlling and decision making, level of trust, perceived fairness and level of communication. Research questionnaires were distributed to selected private hospitals’ employees to get the relevant data. Data collected were further analyzed using Statistical Package for the Social Science (SPSS) software to find out the results. The results show that only two factors which are performance appraisal process and perceived fairness have significant effect on effectiveness of performance appraisal. The results of the study can be implied by the human resource managers to improve on the significant factors that can affect the performance appraisal system.Keywords: Performance Appraisal, Trust, Perceived Fairness, Communication, Employees.

A genre-based investigation of the “About Us” section of private hospitals’ Websites

Abstract Medical tourism industry is currently viewed as one of the lucrative sources of income for some countries and in essence, owes much of its reputation and success to private hospitals and the Internet (Connell, 2006). However, how these private hospitals discursively present themselves to prospective health tourists in order to entice them to use their medical services rather than their rivals’ still remains under-researched. Following the ESP genre school, this study seeks to explore the “About Us” sections of private hospitals’ websites and aims to see how such sections are rhetorically designed and constructed. Using Bhatia’s (1993, 2004) move structures for promotional texts, this study examines the rhetorical structure of the constituent webpages of the “About Us” sections of forty-one Malaysian private hospitals’ websites. Our study demonstrates how Malaysian private hospitals utilize a number of cognitive structures to present and promote themselves in their “About Us” sections. Our findings are, in general, beneficial for the private hospitals in Malaysia or elsewhere in the world, and in particular, are helpful for novice medical website designers.

A genre-based investigation of the “About Us” section of private hospitals’ websites

Abstract Medical tourism industry is currently viewed as one of the lucrative sources of income for some countries and in essence, owes much of its reputation and success to private hospitals and the Internet (Connell, 2006). However, how these private hospitals discursively present themselves to prospective health tourists in order to entice them to use their medical services rather than their rivals’ still remains under-researched. Following the ESP genre school, this study seeks to explore the “About Us” sections of private hospitals’ websites and aims to see how such sections are rhetorically designed and constructed. Using Bhatia’s (1993, 2004) move structures for promotional texts, this study examines the rhetorical structure of the constituent webpages of the “About Us” sections of forty-one Malaysian private hospitals’ websites. Our study demonstrates how Malaysian private hospitals utilize a number of cognitive structures to present and promote themselves in their “About Us” sections. Our findings are, in general, beneficial for the private hospitals in Malaysia or elsewhere in the world, and in particular, are helpful for novice medical website designers.