PERCEPTIONS TOWARDS INTERNAL AUDIT EFFECTIVENESS AND ITS IMPACT ON HEALTHCARE QUALITY IN WEST BANK HOSPITALS / PALESTINE: ACROSS SECTIONAL STUDY
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Date
2024-03-06
Authors
Ola Shaheen
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Abstract
The right to accessing quality healthcare is among the globally recognized basic human rights for all citizens. Healthcare service providers need reasonable assurance that key risks to attaining healthcare outcomes are minimized. At this time, internal audit is the main tool available within healthcare organizations. Nevertheless, the evidence on its effectiveness, in the healthcare context, is still inconclusive.
In this context, this study aims to assess the perceptions towards internal audit effectiveness in the West Bank hospitals and examine the potential impact of this effectiveness on healthcare quality, using the well-known Donabedian’s model of healthcare quality.
To achieve these objectives, the quantitative research approach was adopted. In order to collect the primary data, a fully structured questionnaire was personally directed, using convenience sampling technique, to a total number of 500 persons who work in the hospitals operating in the West Bank. A total of 399 completed and valid questionnaires was returned with a response rate of nearly 80%. The collected data were analyzed, with the aid of SPSS, using descriptive and inferential statistics including means, standard deviations, and multiple linear regression analysis.
The findings of the study revealed that internal audit effectiveness has a moderate level with a mean score of 3.12 on a five-point Likert scale with the dimensions of internal audit quality and internal audit independence being the most effective whereas the dimensions of relationship with external auditor and internal audit competence being the least effective. Moreover, the results showed that healthcare quality has a very good level with a mean score of 3.51 on a five-point scale with the dimension of healthcare process having the best quality while the dimension of healthcare outcome having the worst quality among all of the three dimensions of Donabedian’s model. Last but not the least, the multiple linear regression model, with an adjusted R2 of 45 percent, confirmed that the two dimensions of internal audit quality and management support for internal audit have significant positive impact on healthcare quality, with the second dimension being the most influential. Conversely, the other three dimensions of internal audit effectiveness have no statistical impact on healthcare quality.
On the basis of the above findings, hospitals operating in the West Bank, Palestine are highly recommended, among other things, to periodically assess the effectiveness of their internal audit and healthcare quality, enhance internal audit effectiveness, design and implement patient-oriented strategies that focus on providing quality healthcare, employ the Donabedian’s model to improve healthcare services as well as healthcare outcomes, and use this model as a tool for planning and allocating scarce resources.
Keywords: Healthcare Quality; Internal Audit Effectiveness.