Exploring the impact of patient engagement strategies on overall patient experience in public hospitals

This research explores the impact of patient engagement strategies on overall patient experience in public hospitals, where limited resources characterise the setting. The study examines several key aspects of engagement, including communication, involvement in decision-making, and the perceived quality of care, through a cross-sectional survey of patients. It is found that interpersonal elements of care, especially respectful communication and emotional support, matter more in creating favourable patient experiences than official involvement processes or architectural characteristics of services. The patients reported high satisfaction on average, but the study revealed a significant mismatch between the standardised measures of engagement and patients’ priorities, indicating that traditional instruments may fail to detect meaningful occasions of care in resource-limited settings. These findings challenge conventional beliefs about the efficiency of the uniform approach to engagement used in most healthcare systems. Instead, they emphasise the need for humanistic strategies that focus on the human relationships between providers and patients. These findings can inform current debates on patient-centred care and demonstrate how aspects of relationships can mitigate systemic restrictions in governmental hospitals. The research supports the idea that engagement frameworks should be more flexible and tailored to the local context and needs of patients, rather than focusing on standardised interventions. The possibility of aligning institutional engagement strategies more closely with patient expectations in various healthcare settings should be the focus of future research.