Negative Quality Gap Research Articles

Assessing Quality of In-Patient Care and Patients's Expectations Using A SERVQUAL Approach in A Tertiary Care Hospital in India

Background: Patient satisfaction is a key indicator of healthcare service quality and has implications for the growth and success of healthcare organizations. However, there is often a gap between patients’ expectations and perceptions of service quality, which can vary depending on various sociodemographic factors. This study aimed to assess the expectations, perceptions and service quality gap in a tertiary care hospital using SERVQUAL model. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 120 adult inpatients using a semi-structured questionnaire based on the five dimensions of the SERVQUAL model. The quality gap was calculated as the difference between perception and expectation scores. Results: The study found a significant negative quality gap across all five dimensions, with the largest gaps observed in reliability and responsiveness. The study also revealed that gender, age, and education influenced patients’ perception of service quality, while type of specialty, residence, monthly income, and occupation did not have a significant effect. Conclusion: The study highlighted the need for improving the service quality in the tertiary care hospital, especially in terms of reliability and responsiveness. The study also suggested that healthcare managers and providers should consider the diverse expectations and needs of patients based on their sociodemographic characteristics.

Assessing the Gap Between Women's Expectations and Perceptions of the Quality of Intrapartum Care in Jordan: A Two-Stage Study Using the SERVQUAL Model.

Although Jordan has made significant progress toward expanding the utilization of facility-based intrapartum care, prior research highlights that poor service quality is still persistent. This study aimed to identify quality gaps between women's expectations and perceptions of the actual intrapartum care received, while exploring the contributing factors. Utilizing a pre-post design, quality gaps in intrapartum care were assessed among 959 women pre- and postchildbirth at a prominent tertiary hospital in northern Jordan. Data were gathered using the SERVQUAL scale, measuring service quality across reliability, responsiveness, tangibles, assurance, and empathy dimensions. The overall mean gap score between women's expectations and perceptions of the quality of intrapartum care was -0.60 (±0.56). The lowest and highest mean gap scores were found to be related to tangibles and assurance dimensions, -0.24 (±0.39) and -0.88 (±0.35), respectively. Significant negative quality gaps were identified in the dimensions of assurance, empathy, and responsiveness, as well as overall service quality (p < 0.001). The MLR analyses highlighted education (β = 0.61), mode of birth (β = -0.60), admission timing (β = -0.41), continuity of midwifery care (β = -0.43), physician's gender (β = -0.62), active labour duration (β = 0.37), and pain management (β = -0.33) to be the key determinants of the overall quality gap in intrapartum care. Our findings underscore the importance of fostering a labour environment that prioritizes enhancing caregivers' empathetic, reassuring, and responsive skills to minimize service quality gaps and enhance the overall childbirth experience for women in Jordan. This paper is a collaborative effort involving women with lived experiences of childbirth, midwives, and obstetrics and gynaecologist physicians. The original idea, conceptualization, data generation, and coproduction, including manuscript editing, were shaped by the valuable contributions of stakeholders with unique perspectives on intrapartum care in Jordan.

Application of the SERVQUAL Model for the Evaluation of the Service Quality in Moroccan Higher Education: Public Engineering School as a Case Study

The quality of higher education systems currently represents a major challenge for the development of societies. In Morocco, engineering education is at the heart of this development, it is a major and necessary lever which, due to an increasingly demanding job market, faces several challenges. According to Moroccan Directorate for Strategies and Information Systems (2018) these challenges are classified into two categories: quantitative (low rate of Moroccan engineers compared to global figures; 1.57 graduates in engineering per 10,000 inhabitants in 2016) and qualitative (adaptation of the academic curriculum to the needs of the job market). However, little work has been done on the introduction of service assessment tools in higher education in Morocco (Akrim, Figari, Mottier-Lopez, &amp; Talbi, 2010).In our article, we are interested in the SERVQUAL method (SERVice QUALity-Quality of Service). This approach, initially designed to measure customer satisfaction in a company, allows, when applied to higher education, to measure student satisfaction at the university. Based on a bibliographic research, we have identified the five dimensions of the model that impact the quality of service.Through the application of this model to a sample of students from a public engineering school, we have been able to determine that tangible elements and physical installations have the biggest impact on service quality with a negative quality gap (-2.0275). As a result, more efforts are needed in these dimensions to improve service quality.In conclusion, the SERVQUAL model, applied to the educational system and more precisely higher education, allows to quantify the non-quality by measuring the gap between the perception of the students and their expectations for a good service. It has the advantage of helping decision-makers take corrective actions needed to improve the service quality provided by universities as a part of a process of continuous improvement to achieve higher degree of excellence.

Measuring gap in expected and perceived quality of ICT enabled customer services: a systematic study of top ten retailers of India

The objective of this research paper is to explore the gap between customer expectations and customer perceptions towards the quality of ICT enabled customer services in smart retailing contexts. Researchers have used empirical research design with a sample of 843 customers of top ten retail stores based in major metropolitan cities in India. Results of the study reveals a significant gap between customer expectation and customer perception towards quality of ICT enabled customer services, and a positive impact of quality of these services on overall customer satisfaction and further, on customer loyalty. Researchers have also developed a technology driven model for customer services in retail stores based on customers' perceptions. Suggestions for reducing negative service quality gap in ICT enabled customer services provided by retailers have also been discussed. Study is limited to analysis of ICT enabled customer services in organised retail sector in urban Indian context.

Measuring gap in expected and perceived quality of ICT enabled customer services: a systematic study of top ten retailers of India

The objective of this research paper is to explore the gap between customer expectations and customer perceptions towards the quality of ICT enabled customer services in smart retailing contexts. Researchers have used empirical research design with a sample of 843 customers of top ten retail stores based in major metropolitan cities in India. Results of the study reveals a significant gap between customer expectation and customer perception towards quality of ICT enabled customer services, and a positive impact of quality of these services on overall customer satisfaction and further, on customer loyalty. Researchers have also developed a technology driven model for customer services in retail stores based on customers' perceptions. Suggestions for reducing negative service quality gap in ICT enabled customer services provided by retailers have also been discussed. Study is limited to analysis of ICT enabled customer services in organised retail sector in urban Indian context.

Customers' Perceptions on Pharmaceutical Regulatory Service Quality in Ethiopia

Introduction: Service quality is a unique and abstract concept that is difficult to define and measure. It is an overall customer judgment that results from the comparison between service expectations and perceptions. There is no information on customers’ perception of pharmaceutical regulatory service quality in Ethiopia. Hence, this study aimed to assess customers’ perception of the Ethiopian Food, Medicine and Healthcare Administration and Control Authority’s pharmaceutical regulatory service quality.&#x0D; Materials and methods: Cross-sectional study design was conducted from March 30 to May 30, 2017. Using simple random sampling technique, 131 respondents were included in the study. Structured questionnaire adapted from the SERVQUAL model was used to collect the data. Paired sample t-test and descriptive statistics were used for data analysis.&#x0D; Results: The study found out that pharmaceutical regulatory service quality was low. Negative service quality gaps were observed in the five service quality dimensions and overall service quality. The widest service quality gap was in reliability and the narrowest gap was in the tangibility and assurance dimensions. The perception and expectation mean scores were 1.897±0.61 and 3.433±0.559 respectively.&#x0D; Conclusions: Only 21.4% of the customers perceived that there was good service quality in the Authority while 78.6% claimed as poor. The study showed that there are service quality gaps in the pharmaceutical regulatory services. Hence, managers should look into the unmet needs and expectations or low perceptions of customers; and formulate effective strategies to ensure provision of better service quality.

Educational Quality of Services in Medical Universities of Islamic Republic of Iran: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Background: The comparison between customers’ expectations and real provided services is defined as the quality of service. In medical education system, the negative quality gap can threaten the lives as graduates are probably not capable of managing the health condition of their patients. The aim of this study was to demonstrate a whole picture for educational quality of services in medical universities of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Methods: Persian databases (SID, Elmnet, Magiran, and IranMedex) and English electronic databases including Scopus and PubMed were searched (from 2005 to 2017). Our main search terms include medical university, SERVQUAL, and quality of education. The methodological quality was assessed by a modified Newcastle–Ottawa Scale (NOS). Information was gathered for the following terms: author, publication year, keywords, and main conclusion. The main outcome measurement was the measured gap for tangibles, reliability, assurance, responsiveness, and empathy dimensions along with the total educational services quality gap. Pooled difference in means (95 CI%) were evaluated. All analyzes were performed using comprehensive meta-analysis software. Result: For this study, 143 cross-sectional studies were found for review. Based on the random effect models, total weighted mean difference (WMD) was -1.23 (95 CI%: -1.35 to -1.11), WMD of assurance was -1.24 (95 CI%: -1.41 to -1.08), WMD of reliability was -1.04 (95 CI%: -1.28 to -0.80), WMD of responsiveness was -1.38 (95 CI%: -1.52 to -1.24), WMD of tangible was -1.25 (95 CI%: -1.41 to -1.10), and WMD of empathy dimension was -1.18 (95 CI%: -1.34 to -1.03). Stratified analysis revealed that if universities types and quality of studies decreases, all dimensions of the quality gap would be deteriorated. Conclusion: Negative gap was reported for all faculties/universities. Students are the main customers of universities; hence items that are requested by students should be offered. Determining where gaps lie in different dimensions can guide the allocation of financial resources in education systems, in addition to improving decision-making and strategic planning. Keywords: QUALITY OF SERVICE, SERVAQUAL, EDUCATION, SYSTEMATIC REVIEW, MEDICAL UNIVERSITY

SERVICE QUALITY OF PUBLIC AND PRIVATE PHYSIOTHERAPY INSTITUTES: A COMPARATIVE STUDY IN LAHORE

Background: Ever since quality of services is gaining importance in every industry as it is the indicator of consumer/customer satisfaction, it is of utmost importance to measure service quality of educational institutes to determine the satisfaction of students. Thus, the study aimed to determine the important factors in service quality dimensions which contribute to the satisfaction of students. Methods: This was a Comparative Cross Sectional study in which final year department of physical therapy (DPT) students were included from three private and three public physiotherapy institutes. Results: The largest mean Positive Gap scores for Public Physiotherapy Institutes was 0.18 for accessibility and affordability 0.18. The largest negative mean gap score for Private Physiotherapy domain was “Accessibility and Affordability” found to be -1.96. Conclusion: Students were satisfied with service quality of private institutes in all domains except for the “Accessibility and Affordability” whereas, in Public Institutes largest negative quality gaps were found in “Empathy” and “Assurance”.

Measuring Student Satisfaction in Higher and Tertiary Education: A Case of One Polytechnic in Zimbabwe

The research set out to establish the views of students about service provision in higher and tertiary education institutions. A case study approach was used. Important parameters such as tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy were used to obtain students’ views about quality of service provision in higher and tertiary education. The objective of this study was to measure education service quality as signified by student satisfaction using the modified SERVQUAL (EDUSERVQUAL) model. A descriptive cross sectional design was used for a sample of 65 respondents, selected from a population of 1182 full-time students. The SERVQUAL instrument was adapted to measure student satisfaction. This was followed by focus group interviews. Based on the results, negative quality gap scores in all the five dimensions, ranging from -1.72 to -2.22 were identified, indicating that the institution’s education service quality is below student expectations. Although the study has limited generalisability because it was confined to just one institution, the EDUSERVQUAL methodology can be used by institutions seeking long-term sustainable service quality.

How Do Patients Perceive and Expect Quality of Surgery, Diagnostics, and Emergency Services in Tertiary Care Hospitals? An Evidence of Gap Analysis From Pakistan.

Service quality is one of the important gears to appraise services and determine the gray areas that need improvement. In countries with a resource-poor health system, the first step of measuring quality is yet to be taken. This study seeks to inform policy makers in developing contextual service quality models by identifying service quality gaps in tertiary care teaching hospitals using patients' perspective. A cross-sectional study was performed using multistage cluster sampling, and a modified version of the SERVQUAL (SERV-service, QUAL-quality) instrument was administered to determine patient's expectations and perceptions. A total of 817 completed questionnaires were obtained from patients and/or their attendants using convenience sampling. Data analysis revealed statistically significant negative quality gaps between expectations and perceptions of tangibility, reliability, empathy, assurance, responsiveness, and communication. The difference in mean expectation and perception for responsiveness across the sexes was significant (p < 0.003; p < 0.037, respectively) as well as in perception of communication (p < 0.026). Other dimensions and overall hospital expected and perceived quality were independent of sex. Educational status showed significant difference in expectation and perception in responsiveness (p < 0.005), but the perception of each dimension was significantly different in different educational categories (assurance: p < 0.001; empathy: p < 0.001; reliability: p < 0.001; tangibility: p < 0.001; responsiveness: p < 0.001; communication: p < 0.001; and for overall service quality: p < 0.001). Age and service departments showed no relationship with any of the perceived or expected dimension of service quality of hospitals. Tertiary care hospitals failed to meet patients' expectations in all major areas of service quality, posing a question of how hospitals implement and evaluate their quality assurance policy.

Evaluating service quality in the higher education sector in Iran: an examination of students’ perspective

PurposeEducation is a human right and access to high quality education is key to sustainable socioeconomic development. Improving the quality of higher education institutes is essential for generating the productive human resources. Assessing the quality of higher education from the students’ perspective can be considered a crucial factor in the monitoring of service quality in universities. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the quality of educational services in a higher education institute, the Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences (KUMS), in the west of Iran.Design/methodology/approachA multistage sampling method was used to select 346 students from the KUMS, who were enrolled in the second semester of the academic year 2015-2016. The SERVQUAL questionnaire was used to gather data on students’ perceptions and their expectations about the quality of educational services. The authors used a statistical significance level of 0.05 to examine the gap between the students’ expectations and their perceptions of service quality in five dimensions, namely tangibles, responsiveness, reliability, empathy and assurance.FindingsThe results showed that there was a negative service quality gap in all five dimensions. The overall mean score of students’ expectations and their perceptions was 3.19±0.44 and 2.4±0.45, respectively. The score gap between the overall mean score of perceptions and expectations of students was −0.79, which was statistically significant (p<0.0001). The highest and lowest quality gaps were related to the assurance (−0.84) and tangible (−0.70) dimensions, respectively.Originality/valueThe study indicated that the quality of educational services provided in the KUMS did not meet students’ expectations in five dimensions of service quality. Thus, it warrants further investigations to determine how to improve the quality of educational services in higher education institutes such as the KUMS.

The effect of service delivery in public ‘community service centres’: A case of an emerging economy

This study investigated public perceptions of the service delivery provided by the Community Service Centres (CSC) of the South African Police Service (SAPS) Durban, South Africa. The study focuses on measuring service quality and service delivery. SERVQUAL was used to compare clients’ perceptions against expectations of service quality. Four hundred respondents were surveyed at three community service centres (previously known as ‘police stations’), with expectations and perceptions being assessed via the dimensions of tangibility, reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy. The results indicate that in all five dimensions there is a significant negative quality gap, implying that the quality of service received is below what is expected by clients. Improvements are required in all five dimensions if service delivery is to be improved. Actions needed to improve service quality include regular assessment and monitoring of clients’ experiences, as well as employees’ behaviour.

Quality Gap of Family Health Care Services in Kashan Health Centers: An Iranian Viewpoint

Background and Aim: Patients' viewpoints are commonly used to assess quality of care in diverse healthcare organizations. This permits managerial decisions to be made based on knowledge rather than conjecture. The purpose of the current study is to investigate quality gap of family health care through measuring differences between clients’ perceptions and expectations at Kashan city health centers in Iran.Methodology: A cross-sectional design was applied in 2013. The study sample was composed of 384 women clients of family health services randomly selected from Kashan city health centers. The SERVQUAL questionnaire was used for data collection. Service quality gap was measured by computing the difference between the rating respondents assign to expectations and perceptions statements. For pair wise comparison of the expectations and perceptions the Wilcoxon Signed Rank test was used. Internal consistency of the scale was confirmed with Cronbach's Alpha coefficients (.81 for expectations and .84 for perceptions).Findings: In all dimensions of the services a significant (P&lt;0.001) negative quality gap was observed. The maximum quality gap was in the tangibility (-0.60±0.37) and the minimum one was in the responsiveness (-0.41±0.31) dimension.Conclusions: The findings of the research demonstrated that there was negative gap between clients’ expectations and perceptions in all dimensions of the services. Thus, family health care managers should apply improvements in all five dimensions of the services.

Analyzing the Quality Gapsin the Services of Rehabilitation Centers Using the SERVQUAL Technique in Ahvaz, Iran

Background: The SERVQUAL (service quality) technique is one of the best techniques to evaluate customers’ expectations and perceptions of the quality of the services they have received. Objectives: This study aimed to assess the quality gap in the services provided by rehabilitation centers in Iran using the SERVQUAL technique. Patients and Methods: This was a cross-sectional study conducted in Ahvaz, Iran. The study sample was composed of 255 patients randomly selected from 5 rehabilitation centers. The research data was collected using a valid questionnaire, consisting of 22 items and 5 dimensions of service quality. Results: Most of the patients included in this study were female (72.9%), and the mean age of the patients was 40 ± 13.2 years. The total mean scores of the patients’ expectations and perceptions were 3.73 (SD = 0.3) and 3.56 (SD = 0.5), respectively. According to the gap analysis, there was a negative quality gap in each of the five SERVQUAL dimensions, but in the assurance dimension, this gap was very low, and not found to be significant. The quality gap was more negative in the tangiblesfactor (-0.33) and reliability (-0.30) than in the other factors. Conclusions: There was a negative gap between the patients’ expectations and what they actually perceived in the studied rehabilitation centers (with the exception of one public clinic); therefore, improvements are needed across all five dimensions.

Students' perception of quality of medical education in a medical college in west Bengal, India.

Students' perceived quality of educational service is an important field of educational research. To identify the gaps in the quality of educational services as perceived by students in a medical college in West Bengal, India. In a cross-sectional study, educational quality was measured using validated SERVQUAL instrument between two randomly selected groups of undergraduate medical students (n = 179). This five-point Likert scale questionnaire measured the expectation and perception of students on 26 items under five dimensions of quality of educational services, viz., tangible (physical facilities, equipment, and appearance of personnel), reliability (accuracy and consistency of a department in providing educational services), responsiveness (eagerness to help and commitment), assurance (ability of teaching departments to earn students' confidence), and empathy (ability to communicate care and understanding). Dimension-wise difference in the mean scores for expectation and perception was calculated and was considered as quality gaps in educational services. Significant negative quality gaps were noted in all five dimensions. The highest gap was found in tangible (-1.67) followed by empathy (-1.64) although the mean score of perceived quality in the dimension of empathy was the lowest (2.53). This indicates the need for improvement in physical facilities as well as behavior of teachers and staff toward students. The smallest gap was noted in the dimension of assurance (-1.29), which indicates the students' overall confidence in teaching departments regarding their management or content expertise. These findings underscore students' aspiration for the overall improvement of educational services that can be taken into consideration during development planning.

The Quality Gap in the Services Provided by Rural Maternity Units in Southeast of Iran

Background: Providing high-quality maternity services is crucial to increase utilization of these services and reduce maternal mortality. The quality of the maternity services provided to pregnant women in rural areas of Iran is poorly understood. Objectives: This study aimed to investigate the quality gap in the maternity care services provided by Rural Delivery Facilities and Safe Delivery Posts in Sistan and Balouchestan Province, southeast of Iran, as expressed by the difference in women’s perceptions and experiences of services. Patients and Methods: In this cross-sectional study a total of 438 pregnant women who gave birth in rural maternity unit were recruited between February and May 2013. The SERVQUAL questionnaire was used for data collection. The Wilcoxon Signed-Rank test was used to compare the quality gap as expressed in the mean of differences in the expectation and perception scores. The quality gap was compared between demographic groups using Kruskal-Wallis tests. Results: There was a negative gap in all dimensions of the quality of services provided. The highest quality gap was found for the reliability dimension followed by tangibles, empathy, assurance and responsiveness. The participants’ age, levels of education and the type of maternity unit were found to be associated with the clients’ perceived quality of services. Conclusions: The quality gap in the services provided by maternity units showed that these units are not able to meet pregnant women’s expectations completely. The negative quality gaps can be used as a guideline to improve the maternal health care quality and reduce maternal mortality, particularly in high-risk women such as those living in rural areas.

Assessing Quality of Educational Service by the Servqual Model: Viewpoints of Hotel Management Undergraduate Students at Manipal University in India

Considerations and thoughts on how students perceive or expect quality of educational services, contributes to a great deal in improving the quality of educational and academic services in Universities and Institutions across the world. Defining the probable gaps between the expectations and perceptions of students will enable educational service providers to embark on necessary actions to augment the quality of educational services provided by a university particularly offering a hospitality management degree. The aim of this study is to use the SERVQUAL instrument to measure and identify any actual or perceived gaps between student's expectations and perceptions of the educational services of their University. Particularly aimed at determining the quality gap in educational services provided to the Undergraduate Hotel Management students of the Manipal University - India in December 2013.The students participating in the study are pursuing a 4 year Bachelor Degree in Hotel Management. The study will also provide insights to the University on the improvements needed for future student satisfaction on educational services and quality improvements. The SERVQUAL metric was adapted for the measurement of service quality in the higher education of hotel management course at Manipal University and conducted on an entire population of students. The proposed instrument is tested only in one University in India with an entire population (170 students) of two years of study. This research paper presents an approach to using SERVQUAL for measuring student's expectations and perceptions. The adapted factors concerning student services at a University from the standard SERVQUAL instrument are questioned using the SERVQUAL methodology. The detailed statistical analysis reduced to meaningful statements are usable by the management of university's as an effective easy to apply quality measurement tool. The outcomes of the study resulted in a negative quality gap in all five dimensions of quality educational services: Tangible (physical environments) Reliability (trustworthiness) Responsiveness (Sensitivity) Assurance (guarantee) Empathy (Understanding). The maximum and minimum mean of quality gap observed was -0.48 in the dimension of Tangibles and -0.11 in the dimension of assurance respectively. It is significant to note that the perceptive gap of the female students were higher than the perceptive gap of the male students in all 5 dimensions. Female rated reliability with high mean and the male students rated tangibles with a high mean. It was also observed that the P value of female scores on the dimension off reliability 0.033 and responsive 0.031 and is statistically relevant as it is less than 0.05.

Service quality in higher education: Study of Turkish students in Malaysian universities

The Article attempts to analyze service quality in higher education institutions of Malaysia. The study used the Gap Model presented by Parasuraman et al. (1985, 1988) to identify the difference between expected quality and perceived quality in higher education institutions of Malaysia. The study focused to identify gaps of Turkish students in Malaysian universities Five basic dimensions of service quality measured through SERVQUAL (Instrument for service quality measurement). These dimensions are tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy. A stratified sample of 41 Turkish students has been selected from top five public universities in Malaysia. Results showed a negative service quality gap in higher education institutions of Malaysia from Turkish students’ perception which indicated perceived service quality is below than expectations of Turkish students in Malaysian universities.

Quality Evaluation of Educational Services Gap in Neyshabur Faculty of Medical Sciences Based on Service Quality Scale

Background: Recognition of views and expectations of students is an important issue to improve the quality of educational services in the universities. Objectives: The aim of this study was to evaluatethe quality gap of educational services by using Service Quality (SERVQUAL) instrument in Neyshabur Faculty of Medical Sciences in viewpoints of students. Materials and Methods: In this cross-sectional study, data were collected usingSERVQUAL instrument which comprisedof two questionnaires (perception and expectation) and each of them comprised 27 items based on the Likert scale. This questionnaire evaluatedfive dimensions of service: assurance, responsiveness, empathy, reliability and tangible Questionnaires were distributed between 199 students study atNeyshabur Faculty of Medical Sciences and 198 were returned (response rate = 99.5%); one questionnaire was excluded because it was notreturned. Quality gap of educational services was determined based on differences between students' perceptions and expectations. Data were analyzed using SPSS16 software. Results: The mean age of the students was 20.38±1.92 years; 65.7 % were female and 34.3% were male. There was a negative quality gap in each of the five SERVQUAL dimensions. The overall mean of quality gap was -1.31. The greatest and the least negative quality gap means were observed in the tangible (-1.62) and reliability (-1.02) dimensions, respectively. There were significant differences between perceptions and expectations of students in all dimensions represented by SERVQUAL (P < 0.05). Conclusions: The results of this study showed that there is a notable gap between students' expectations and what they have actually received of educational services. Thus, improvements are required in all dimensions of educational services quality.

ASSESSMENT AND ASSURANCE OF SERVICE QUALITY IN PEDIATRIC HEALTHCARE IN QATAR

The purpose of this study was quality assessment and quality assurance in pediatricservices of public and private hospitals in Qatar. The purpose of quality assessmentwas to identify gaps in the delivered services; while quality assurance process wascarried out to ensure no future gaps in quality occur. The objectives were achievedusing a modified SERVQUAL scale and Fuzzy-Quality Function Deployment (Fuzzy-QFD) approach. Data from 179 participants who visit public/private hospitals inQatar was analyzed to find the gaps between expectations and perceptions. The resultsof the SERVQUAL study indicates negative quality gaps for all the service qualitydimensions. The inference that can be drawn from this result is that, in general, thepeople are dissatisfied by the pediatric healthcare services offered by the public/private hospitals in Qatar. Thus, the managers in these hospitals should work towardsimproving the quality of their services, in particular, the responsiveness and empathydimensions. The output of the SERVQUAL study was then utilized to model thosevariables that are important in assuring service quality. This was achieved usingFuzzy-QFD model which demonstrates that there is a set of variables that shouldbe accorded prime importance by the hospitals administrators’ to assure quality inpediatric services.