Collaboration Among Healthcare Professionals and Effective Healthcare Delivery in Kogi State Specialist Hospital, Lokoja, Kogi State – Nigeria

Abstract

To achieve the global health Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), there is need for all healthcare professionals to collaborate within and across specialties and disciplines. Despite the global evidences supporting interprofessional collaboration, there continues to be issues in understanding its manifestations and influence on healthcare delivery in resource-limited environments like Nigeria. Therefore, this study investigated the collaboration among healthcare professionals and effective healthcare delivery in Kogi State Specialist Hospital (KSSH), Lokoja, Nigeria. The study assessed the extent of collaboration among healthcare professionals, its effect on healthcare service delivery. The study utilised the Relational Coordination Theory, the central assumption of which is that high-quality relationships enable more effective communication, which in turn improves coordination and performance outcomes. Descriptive survey research design was adopted using a structured questionnaire administered to a census sample of 249 healthcare professionals in the study area and the data gathered were analyzed using descriptive statistics and the formulated hypotheses were tested using both simple and Multiple Linear Regression. The findings revealed a high prevalence of interprofessional collaboration of 99.2% among respondents; hypothesis testing further showed that collaboration significantly improves healthcare delivery outcomes, including service efficiency (β = 0.60, p < 0.001), reduced patient length of stay (β = -0.41, p = 0.004), fewer medical errors (β = -0.55, p < 0.001), and higher patient satisfaction (β = 0.68, p < 0.001). The study concluded that collaboration is not only prevalent among the hospital workforce but also essential for delivering high-quality, efficient, and patient-centred care and recommended that the hospital administrators, State Ministry of Health/Hospital Management Board, Professional Regulatory Councils and policymakers should institutionalise inclusive collaboration frameworks that transcend professional boundaries, giving equal voice to all healthcare workers in clinical decision-making professional Councils/Regulatory Bodies should strengthen collaboration through continuous interprofessional training programmes is essential, particularly those that simulate real-life scenarios and encourage role appreciation across the hospital departments.