Transparency of government healthcare websites: a predictive model based on the main public administrations of Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, and Spain

Abstract

Transparency and public accountability are two essential aspects of public administrations because they help to prevent possible cases of corruption and encourage citizen participation. In this sense, transparency is a communicative, not merely administrative or legal, process between public institutions and citizens. The main objective of this study is to identify predictive factors of transparency in government healthcare centers in Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, and Spain in 2021. To do this, we analyzed the websites of 64 public administrations from these countries. Content analysis was applied to assess the presence of 24 indicators on each website. The results for the studied cases reveal an association between the level of transparency and three factors: healthcare systems, internet access, and administration levels. We also identified a predictive factor that should be considered in future studies on the transparency of healthcare websites: the likelihood of decreased transparency was reduced by 91% for public healthcare systems (Ecuador and Spain) as opposed to mixed public –private healthcare systems (Chile and Colombia). We thereby conclude that the involvement of the State, at least in matters related to the healthcare field, favors greater access to information by the community, at the same time as providing greater social responsibility because of substantial communication of the activities carried out by these centers, as well as how and by whom.

Political parties’ influence on the transparency and participation of Spanish municipal websites: the case of Catalonia, the Community of Madrid, the Community of Valencia, and the Region of Murcia

“…Overcoming the representation crisis involves a rapprochement with citizens and the restoration of areas of interaction (Mair, 2008). This is only possible through greater transparency and participation in the political and institutional sphere, since administrations that tout it are considered to be efficient and better quality (Hood;Heald, 2006;Calvo-Gutiérrez, 2013;Villoria, 2018;Barredo-Ibáñez et al, 2022). In addition, transparency and participation are key tools for representation and accountability (Bauhr;Grimes, 2014), which lie at the heart of the public's concerns (Ignazi, 2021).…”

La transparencia como medicina. La comunicación de la pandemia a través de los portales de datos abiertos de las autonomías

“…Esto se ha visto reflejado también en un aumento de los estudios académicos sobre la materia(Matheus y Janssen, 2020), que han reflejado el desarrollo de portales de transparencia y la aprobación de leyes de acceso a la información, entre otros. No obstante, la transparencia en el ámbito de la salud pública ha sido poco estudiada, como señalanBarredo-Ibáñez et al (2022). Estos autores citan a Díaz (2019) para destacar el valor de la transparencia en emergencias sanitarias, especialmente cuando esta está apoyada en el uso de las redes sociales.En este contexto de amplitud de políticas de transparencia y datos abiertos, surgieron demandas informativas sin precedentes, en plena crisis sanitaria por la pandemia del coronavirus.…”