A comparative study of service quality between private and public hospitals: Empirical evidences from India

Abstract

Significant growth along with higher purchasing power of Indian customers has led to stiff competition in Indian healthcare sector. Customer perception of service quality plays a significant role when choosing or preferring a particular hospital. The objective of this study is to find out customer preference for healthcare services delivered by both public and private hospitals in India. For this purpose 'SERVQUAL' instrument was used to measure patients' perception about service quality delivered by both public and private hospitals located in the capital city of India. An analysis covering 192 patients revealed gap between patients' expectations and perceptions across public and private hospitals with reference to quality of services delivered on selected parameters. In this article logistic regression analysis was used to forecast the probability of a patient to visit public hospital over private hospital and vice versa. The regression model used had a classification accuracy of 94.9%. Preference for a particular hospital across various clusters was identified using cluster analysis. The findings of the present study aims to provide hospital managers an insight for efficient resource allocation and mobilization based on patients' evaluation of service quality delivered by these hospitals.

Measuring the impact of perceived service quality on insured and uninsured patients’ satisfaction

“…Inclusion criteria into the research sample was based on the household with any family member admitted to a hospital in the past year prior to the study period with a hospital stay of minimum 1 day. Similar inclusion criteria was adopted by Arasli et al (2008), Duggirala et al (2008) and Mahapatra (2013) who considered respondents receiving inpatient medical care in the past six months to two years’ time period from the study date. The final sample for the study comprised 322 respondents, out of which 168 had a subscription to health insurance scheme at the time of hospital admission and 154 respondents were without any health insurance scheme.…”

“…The second track corresponds to studies measuring perceived service quality through dimensions resulting out of a modification of the SERVQUAL scale. Researchers like Arasli et al (2008), Roshnee and Fowder (2008), Karassavidou et al (2009), Eleuch (2011), Mahapatra (2013) and Murti et al (2013) have used this approach towards empirical evaluation of patients’ perceived health-care service quality.…”

Exploring Innovation Based on Service User Complaints to Increase Satisfaction

“…This is because currently, government hospitals and health centers must compete with the private sector in providing health services. Even some research results in some countries show that people are more satisfied with private hospital services than government hospitals (Ahmed, Tarique & Arif, 2017;Bamfo, 2017;Irfan &Ijaz, 2011). If government hospitals do not pay attention to customer satisfaction, then it is certain that very few patients will choose to seek treatment there, anything will be their last option (Javed & Ilyas;2018:2).…”

Measuring Perceived Service Quality in Healthcare Setting in Developing Countries: A Review for Enhancing Managerial Decision-making

“…Mahapatra (2013) assessed patient’s preferences for choosing public and private hospitals in Delhi. Patients who visited public and private hospitals reported poor quality of service at both public and private hospitals.…”