Effectiveness of Implementing the Citizen’s Charter at a Regional Health Services Directorate in Sri Lanka

I.M.S.M Rajakaruna, M.D.A Krishanth, S.M Arnold

Abstract


Introduction - Unacceptable delays in providing services by the Regional Director of Health Services’ Office, Kurunegala and subsequent re-visits had created customer dissatisfaction. A citizen’s charter and supplementary interventions were developed and implemented to improve providing services. The objective of this study is to assess effectiveness of implementing citizen’s charter and supplementary interventions at Establishment Branch of Regional Director of Health Services’ Office, Kurunegala.

Methods - Methods involve developing process and outcome indicators to assess the effectiveness of charter and supplementary interventions, pre and post-assessments of developed indicators following implementing interventions for three months, and comparison of pre and post results for statistical significance to assess the effectiveness of implementations.

Results - Following implementations, compliance of personal files with service standards significantly increased (p<0.001) from 40% to 94% while average number of visits per service to Establishment Branch had a significant reduction (p<0.001) from 2.40 to 1.09. Nursing officers’ overall satisfaction on receiving services improved significantly (p<0.001) from 11.5% to 75% as their satisfaction on all service attributes showed statistically significant improvements. Three attributes namely, awareness of place of formats, availability of contact details of responsible officer for services and courtesy exceeded expectations although the remainder showed expectation-perception gaps.

Conclusion - Charter and supplementary interventions proved to be effective in improving service provision at Establishment Branch of Regional Director of Health Services’ Office, Kurunegala. It is recommended that Regional Director of Health Services’ offices implement charters and supplementary interventions at Establishment Branches in a stepwise manner to improve service provision. 


Keywords


Effectiveness; Citizen’s Charter; Service delivery; Service standards; The Regional Director of Health Services’ Office

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References


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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.52155/ijpsat.v30.2.4040

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