Abstract
BackgroundHighly competitive market in the private hospital industry has caused increasing pressure on them to provide services with higher quality. The aim of this study was to determine the different dimensions of the service quality in the private hospitals of Iran and evaluating the service quality from the patients' perspective.MethodsA cross-sectional study was conducted between October and November 2010 in Tehran, Iran. The study sample was composed of 983 patients randomly selected from 8 private general hospitals. The study questionnaire was the SERVQUAL questionnaire, consisting of 21 items in service quality dimensions.ResultsThe result of factor analysis revealed 3 factors, explaining 69% of the total variance. The total mean score of patients' expectation and perception was 4.91(SD = 0.2) and 4.02(SD = 0.6), respectively. The highest expectation and perception related to the tangibles dimension and the lowest expectation and perception related to the empathy dimension. The differences between perception and expectation were significant (p < 0.001). There was a significant difference between the expectations scores based on gender, education level, and previous hospitalization in that same hospital. Also, there was a significant difference between the perception scores based on insurance coverage, average length of stay, and patients' health conditions on discharge.ConclusionThe results showed that SERVQUAL is a valid, reliable, and flexible instrument to monitor and measure the quality of the services in private hospitals of Iran. Our findings clarified the importance of creating a strong relationship between patients and the hospital practitioners/personnel and the need for hospital staff to be responsive, credible, and empathetic when dealing with patients.
Highlights
Competitive market in the private hospital industry has caused increasing pressure on them to provide services with higher quality
Many of researchers have emphasized on the importance of determining role of quality in hospital choice by the patients, as well as satisfying and retaining customers and have claimed that the improvement of the quality of hospital services will increase the number of satisfied patients and thereby customer loyalty [5,7]
SERVQUAL questionnaire was used in this study, but results from the factor analysis did not confirm the structure suggested by the Parasuraman et al.[14,18] and three dimensions of reliability, responsiveness, and assurance were converted into a single dimension
Summary
Competitive market in the private hospital industry has caused increasing pressure on them to provide services with higher quality. Competitive market in the private hospital industry has caused increasing. Quality is considered a key factor in differentiation and excellence of services and is a potential source of sustainable competitive advantage so that its understanding, measurement, and improvement are important challenges for all health services organizations [4,5]. Many of researchers have emphasized on the importance of determining role of quality in hospital choice by the patients, as well as satisfying and retaining customers and have claimed that the improvement of the quality of hospital services will increase the number of satisfied patients and thereby customer loyalty [5,7]
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