Consumer’s Oriented Dental Service Quality Assessment Using the Servqual Model

Abstract

Consum€rs oriented qualily in dental healrh s€rvices has b€come more imporlant in the eE of free competition. Perceived quality by the community has been clos€ly related with th€ir previous exp€rience level of $tisfaction on lhe quality of the services thcy rcceived. Th€ infonnation on the p€r€rived quality of dental s€rvices in Indon€sia has been scarce. On€ of lhe rcasons is lack of stardardized method in m€asuring the consumer's p€rspective on d€nlal quaiity. Using the Seruice Quality (S€nqual) mod€l cross-s€ctionally, this study is to investigate differences in palt€rns on p€rc€ived qualily of dilTerenr sroups of Puskesmas (gov€mment own€d) and Syahid clinic (private owner) consumers. The analysis of Servqoal Ksrtesius diagram was cani€d out lo ossess lhe quality of servic€. bas€d on various criteria nan€ly Dimensions of Physical Tangibles, Reliability, Responsiveness, Assuranc€, and Empalhy. R€sulh showed differ€nces in quality p€rception likely due lo difler€nces in levelofeducalion and income.llwal concluded thal the S€vqual model has b€€n adequal€ly praclical lor ass€ssing quality d€nral services bas€i on lev€l of consum€r's satisfaction and desree of importanc€ as measured from lhe consumer's p€rsp€ctive. Ev€ntually, the .€sults of Servqual measurcm€nls can b€ used as guidanc€ for qualiry improvements of dental s€rvices, based different chamcteristics of consumers.