The Influence of Engagement Practices on Health Care Service Delivery of University College Hospital (UCH) Ibadan

The survival and consequent perpetuation of a corporate
organisation’s business activities within a given community and its
environs depend in part on how the organisation relates to its host
community. Engagement practices are important tools for health care
institutions in ensuring mutual trust and relationships with their
immediate environment. Going by this, this study attempts to appraise
the rate of indispensability of engagement practices in the tertiary level
of the health care system, like the University College Hospital (UCH),
Ibadan. The study is anchored on the situational theory of publics and
symmetrical models, with a quantitative approach employed to
establish the objectives. The study found that the engagement practices
deployed by UCH vary in place, while their adoption was just at an
average level, and patients’ level of satisfaction with health care
service delivery was just a little bit above average. The result of the
study's null hypothesis, however, indicated that engagement practices
did not significantly influence satisfaction with the health care service
delivery of UCH, Ibadan. The p-value, which has a value of 120, is
greater than the level of significance (0.05). The study concluded that
engagement practices deployed by UCH, Ibadan are quite effective; the
author, however, recommended that the engagement practices of the
hospital should be reorganised, and adoption of engagement practices
should concentrate on areas such as engaging the services of
community members and patients’ satisfaction with UCH health care
service delivery.