Health Facility Preparedness and Response to COVID-19: An Assessment of Employee Satisfaction in a Teaching Hospital in Southern Nigeria

Abstract

Employee satisfaction is increasingly recognized as a measure that largely determines the productivity and efficiency of health institutions. This study assessed employees' satisfaction with preparedness for, and response to COVID-19 in a tertiary hospital in Benin City, Edo State, Nigeria. This was a descriptive cross-sectional study using mixed methods (qualitative and quantitative) for data collection from employees at the University of Benin Teaching Hospital, Benin City. Quantitative data were analyzed using IBM SPSS version 25.0 while qualitative data were analyzed thematically using ATLAS. ti software. The statistical measures for the quantitative analysis were the adjusted odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI). The level of significance was set at p < 0.05. A total of 590 respondents with mean age 38.9 ± 9.7 years and 20 focus group discussion (FGD) participants participated in the study. Overall, 368 (62.4%) of employees were satisfied with the measures put in place to combat COVID-19 in the facility. Staff were most satisfied with infection prevention and control measures (72.9%) and information and education communication (IEC) on respiratory hygiene and cough etiquette (67.8%). Age of respondents <40 years, being a clinical staff and having direct contact with patients were significant predictors of employee satisfaction, aOR 0.661 (p=0.024); aOR 0.528; (p=0.003); aOR 0.594 (p=0.039), respectively. Thematic analysis of the FGDs revealed that awareness creation about COVID-19, and policies and protocols were areas that employees were least satisfied with. In conclusion, two-thirds of employees were overall satisfied with measures put in place to combat COVID-19 in the health facility. Younger staff and those who worked in clinical areas, were less satisfied than other groups. The management of the study facility can leverage these findings to sustain and strengthen IPC and IEC measures while addressing communication of policies and protocols in areas where staff were less satisfied.