HOSPITAL ADMINISTRATION CHALLENGES IN SELECTED LOCAL PUBLIC HOSPITALS IN THE NATIONAL CAPITAL REGION
Keywords:
Patient Safety, Hospital Administration, Medical Error Reporting, Accountability, Patient Care Quality, Public Hospitals, Healthcare GovernanceAbstract
Patient safety remains a critical concern in public healthcare, where administrative, structural, and resource-related challenges may affect the quality of patient care and the reporting and accountability of medical errors. This study examined the challenges faced by hospital administration in selected local public hospitals in the National Capital Region (NCR), with particular emphasis on issues affecting patient care quality, barriers to error accountability and reporting, and differences in reported challenges across hospital affiliations. A quantitative, descriptive-correlational research design was employed. The study involved 30 purposively selected nurses from three local public hospitals in the NCR: Pasig City General Hospital, Pasig City Children’s Hospital, and Mandaluyong City Medical Center, with ten respondents from each institution. Data were collected using a researcher-designed questionnaire consisting of demographic items, medical-error-related questions, patient-care indicators, and five-point Likert-scale measures of accountability and reporting barriers. Data were analyzed using frequency and percentage distributions, weighted means, and a two-sample t-test at the 0.05 level of significance. Results showed that hospital size and capacity were the most frequently reported issues affecting patient care quality, followed by financial support, technology, and infrastructure. Human resources, leadership and management, and quality of care were also identified as recurring concerns. Regarding accountability and error reporting, respondents agreed that fear of repercussions, blame culture, workload constraints, lack of standardized reporting systems, and bureaucratic reporting processes hindered effective reporting. The findings further revealed a significant difference in reported administrative challenges according to hospital affiliation (t = 3.18, p = .011). The study concludes that hospital administration challenges are shaped by institutional and contextual conditions. Strengthening financial and human resources, modernizing infrastructure, promoting non-punitive safety cultures, improving leadership, and implementing standardized reporting systems are recommended to enhance hospital administration and patient safety.
References
American Heritage Dictionary. (2019). Percentage. In The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (5th ed.).
Brown, A., Garcia, B., & Martinez, C. (2019). Financial challenges in public hospitals: A comparative analysis. Journal of Health Economics, 38, 89–105.
Carayon, P., Schoofs Hundt, A., & Karsh, B. (2014). The role of human factors and cognitive biases in medical errors: A comprehensive analysis. International Journal of Medical Informatics, 83(2), 177–184.
Chen, L., Smith, P., & Johnson, M. (2019). Quality of care in public hospitals: Assessing progress and identifying challenges. Health Policy and Planning, 34(7), 521–536.
Chen, Y., Lin, S., & Leong, C. (2020). Surgical errors: A comprehensive review of types, causes, and preventive measures. International Journal of Surgery, 77, 97–103.
Cohen, D., Rhydderch, M., & Kansal, R. (2019). Teamwork and communication skills training for trauma resuscitation. Journal of Surgical Education, 76(1), 174–183.
Commissioner of Internal Revenue v. St. Luke's Medical Center, Inc., G.R. No. 195909 (Sup. Ct. Phil. Sept. 26, 2012).
Creswell, J. W., & Creswell, J. D. (2018). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches (5th ed.). Sage Publications.
Edmondson, A. C. (2018). The fearless organization: Creating psychological safety in the workplace for learning, innovation, and growth. John Wiley & Sons.
Garcia, M., Rodriguez, D., & Lopez, E. (2019). Technology and infrastructure challenges in public hospitals: A case study approach. Journal of Public Health Management and Practice, 25(5), 432–446.
Gonzales, A., & Ramos, B. (2018). The impact of safety culture on error rates in healthcare organizations. Patient Safety Journal, 14(3), 126–133.
Gonzales, A., & Ramos, E. (2018). Safety culture and error prevention: The role of open communication and non-punitive approaches. Journal of Healthcare Safety, 29(1), 15–28.
Gonzalez, D., Lopez, G., & Perez, S. (2017). Technical errors related to medical devices: An integrative review. Journal of Patient Safety & Quality Improvement, 5(1), 521–525.
Gupta, R., Sharma, A., & Khan, A. (2020). Beyond the numbers: Understanding the human toll of medical errors. Patient Safety & Quality Healthcare, 17(5), 22–27.
Institute for Healthcare Improvement. (2021). Patient safety. http://www.ihi.org/Engage/Initiatives/Patient-Safety/Pages/default.aspx
James, J. T. (2018). Medical errors: The scope of the problem. Journal of Clinical Anesthesia, 33, 442–445.
James, M., Williams, R., & Davis, L. (2018). Impact of medical errors on patient care and outcomes: An integrated analysis. Healthcare Management Review, 43(2), 138–151.
James, M., Williams, R., & Davis, L. (2018). Exploring best practices and strategies for error prevention: A global analysis. International Journal of Healthcare Quality Assurance, 31(6), 523–536.
Johnson, R., Lee, S., & Nguyen, T. (2019). Human resource challenges in public hospitals: An empirical study. International Journal of Healthcare Management, 22(4), 321–335.
Jones, K., Skinner, A., & Thomas, M. (2017). The impact of communication in healthcare: A systematic review. Patient Experience Journal, 4(3), 73–84.
Leedy, P. D., & Ormrod, J. E. (2015). Practical research: Planning and design (11th ed.). Pearson.
Leonard, M., Graham, S., & Bonacum, D. (2016). The human factor: The critical importance of effective teamwork and communication in providing safe care. Quality and Safety in Health Care, 13(Suppl. 1), i85–i90.
Lee, K., Chen, L., & Wang, Q. (2019). Leadership and management in public hospitals: Current trends and best practices. Journal of Hospital Administration, 8(2), 45–60.
Norman, D. A. (1988). The design of everyday things. Basic Books.
Patel, A., Rajabzadeh, R., & Varghese, R. (2018). Healthcare-associated infections: Types, sources, and preventive strategies. Infection Control Today, 22(7), 14–17.
Professional Services, Inc. v. Agana, G.R. Nos. 126297, 126467 & 127590 (Sup. Ct. Phil. Feb. 2, 2010).
Pronovost, P. J., & Sexton, J. B. (2014). Assessing safety culture: Guidelines and recommendations. In Safety culture (pp. 53–64). CRC Press.
Reason, J. (2016). Organizational accidents revisited. CRC Press.
Reyes, M., Cruz, J., & Santos, L. (2020). Communication breakdowns and medical errors: A Philippine hospital study. Philippine Journal of Health Communication, 14(2), 52–59.
Santos, J., Rodriguez, R., & Perez, A. (2018). Enhancing patient outcomes through improved team communication: A multisite study. Journal of Nursing Care Quality, 33(2), 123–128.
Santos, L., Cruz, J., & Reyes, M. (2019). An analysis of medical errors in Philippine public hospitals. Philippine Journal of Health Research and Development, 23(3), 37–42.
Smith, J., & Johnson, M. (2017). The impact of medical errors on extended hospital stays. Journal of Healthcare Management, 42(5), 335–341.
Smith, J., & Johnson, M. (2019). Cognitive biases and their implications for diagnostic inaccuracies. International Journal of Medical Practice, 12(3), 182–188.
Smith, J., Clark, M., & Brown, K. (2018). Enhancing interprofessional collaboration and communication for error prevention in Philippine public hospitals. Journal of Interprofessional Care, 32(5), 617–630.
Smith, J., Johnson, A., & Brown, K. (2018). Understanding medical errors: A comprehensive analysis of categories and causes in Philippine public hospitals. Journal of Healthcare Quality, 45(3), 212–226.
Smith, J., Johnson, A., & Williams, R. (2019). Hospital size and its relationship to patient care quality and safety. Journal of Healthcare Management, 64(3), 187–201.
Taylor, J. (2020). Weighted mean. In Statistics How To. https://www.statisticshowto.com/probability-and-statistics/statistics-definitions/weighted-mean/
Vincent, C., Amalberti, R., & de Saint Maurice, G. (2016). The anatomy of healthcare harm. BMJ Quality & Safety, 25(2), 81–84.
Wachter, R. M. (2017). Making it safe: How to lead a culture of reliability. In Safe patients, smart hospitals (pp. 17–44). McGraw-Hill Education.
Weaver, S. J., Dy, S. M., & Rosen, M. A. (2019). Team-training in healthcare: A narrative synthesis of the literature. BMJ Quality & Safety, 28(5), 414–426.
Weingart, R., Smith, C., & Jones, P. (2018). Barriers to effective error reporting and accountability: A multi-hospital study. Journal of Patient Safety, 14(4), 236–245.
World Health Organization. (2021). Patient safety and risk management. https://www.who.int/patientsafety/en/
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Journal for the Advancement of Sustainable Development Goals
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
License Statement
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0)
All articles published in the Journal for the Advancement of Sustainable Development Goals (JASDG) are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
Under this license, users are free to:
-
Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format;
-
Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, including commercial use;
provided that appropriate credit is given to the original author(s) and the source, a link to the license is provided, and any changes made are indicated.
The licensor cannot revoke these freedoms as long as the license terms are followed.
Authors retain copyright of their work while granting JASDG the right of first publication. The published work remains freely available to readers and may be used, distributed, reproduced, and adapted by others in accordance with the terms of the CC BY 4.0 license.
For more information about this license, please visit:
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Copyright Notice
Copyright © 2026 The Author(s).
Articles published in the Journal for the Advancement of Sustainable Development Goals (JASDG) are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction, and adaptation in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are properly credited.
