Practice and Associated Factors of Health Professionals towards Citizens’ Charter at Jimma University Medical Center

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Citizens’ Charter is a public promise between citizens and service providing organizations which visibly specifies expectations and standards in the service delivery. Citizens’ charter standard has been implemented in Jimma University Medical Center since 2016/17. However, the practice and associated factor of citizens’ charter among health professionals have not been studied yet. Hence, the aim of this study was to assess the practice of citizens’ charter and associated factors among health professionals.
METHODS: Facility based cross-sectional study was conducted on 389 health care providers, selected through stratified sampling, from April 1 to April 26. Data was collected using a pretested structured self-administered questionnaire. Data were entered into EPI-data version 3.1 and exported to Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20. Descriptive statistics, binary and multivariable logistic regression analysis were done. P-values less than 0.05 were used to declare significant association between dependent and independent variables. In the process of multivariable logistic regression analysis, knowledge and attitude variables were not tested due to low number of respondents to those specific variables’ measuring items. Hence, it was difficult to declare as a predictor at bivariate analysis.
RESULT: For this study, the response rate was 92%. Out of all, 237(60.9%) professionals were properly practicing citizens’ charter standard while 152(39.1%) were not properly practicing it. The factors affecting the practice were job satisfaction [AOR =7.4, 95%CI (4.4, 12.5)], perceived workload [AOR =1.8, 95%CI (1.05, 3.0)] and type of profession [AOR=5.4, 95%CI ((1.98, 14.8)].
CONCLUSION: This study revealed that more than half of the respondents properly practiced citizens’ charter. However, few health professionals only knew the existence of citizens’ charter. Job satisfaction, perceived workload, and type of profession were the factors affecting the practice of citizens’ charter.