Exploring the Expectation and Perception of Socio-Economic Needs of the Elderly in Ghana: An Empirical Analysis

Abstract

Ageing is a natural process, which presents a unique challenge for all sections of the society. Further, by the year 2025, almost 75% of this elderly population will be living in developing nations, which already have an overburdened health-care delivery system. Our research integrated the Refined Kano Model with the RAND study to evaluate the value of health service quality offered to the elders as a basis for redesigning the healthcare component of Ghana elderly healthcare policy. Further the study identifies the specific elements of healthcare which are of importance to the elderly as opposed to the general use of the world healthcare which completely buries the specific healthcare challenges that elders in Ghana are suffering from and what they want done about it. The results demonstrate areas in which the healthcare sector in Ghana especially elderly care services is close to meeting elder's expectations, and areas in which it falls far short of expectations. From a methodological perspective, it can be concluded that the ability of designing elderly healthcare services upon patient satisfaction makes this approach a powerful tool for health service managers and hospital business sector like other sectors