Evaluation of outpatient service quality: What do patients and providers think?

Farrokhi, Pouria; Aryankhesal, Aidin; Bagherzadeh, Rafat; Hashjin, Asgar Aghaei

doi:10.1080/20479700.2022.2110195

Cited by 6 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…consistent with studies based on the SERVQUAL instrument and conducted in outpatient departments or clinics of public or major hospitals in Jordan, Turkey, Croatia, Pakistan, Tehran, Eastern Saudi Arabia, Ghana, India, and China. [21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28]39 However, participants in this study scored 7.45 ± 1.18 (out of 9 points) and 7.27 ± 1.23 for general and specialized hospitals on the overall impression, which is high and close to Hu et al 40 (4.38 out of 5), a survey that also included tertiary hospitals in Shenzhen their subjects. This implies that although patients had a good overall impression of the hospital, outpatient services in public hospitals in Shenzhen did not fully meet patients expectations.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 55%

“…The differences are widely existing in the rankings of expectation score, perception score, and their gap. 21,[25][26][27][28] The reality of highly heterogeneous healthcare systems around the world and ability to provide service of medical institutions within China may partly explain the differences. For instance, Chinese outpatients are not strict about the appointment and rarely visit the doctor at scheduled time.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…20 Third, its three decade of use in the healthcare industries show strong reliability and validity, as well as a variety of findings for comparison and discussion, such as the inconsistent findings of rankings of the mean scores of expectation, perception, and service quality gap. [21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28] Finally, it's advised to be customized it for use in specific contexts, 13 thus additional questions pertaining to the patient experience can be added to make it more adaptable. For example, functional services such as protection against violent conflicts and careful personal information checks are necessary in case of a stressful doctor-patient relationship and the COVID-19 pandemic.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Assessing Quality Gap of Outpatient Service in Public Hospitals: A Cross-Sectional Study in China

Lin

Hao

Zhang

2023

INQUIRY

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In China, most ambulatory care is provided by public hospitals. However, many public hospitals’ outpatient services fall short of meeting patients’ demands. This study aimed to assess the quality gap of outpatient service in public hospitals by using an indicator system developed based on the SERVQUAL model. This cross-sectional study was conducted from June to July 2019 at 13 public hospitals in Shenzhen. In total, 1876 outpatients were included in the study, and participants were asked to fill out the modified SERVQUAL questionnaire. The scale consists of 23 items scattered in 6 dimensions, including Safety, Reliability, Responsiveness, Tangibles, Assurance, and Empathy. Descriptive analysis, t-test or F-test, and optimal scale analysis were performed. The patients’ expectation of outpatient services exceeded the hospitals’ services they perceived and resulted in negative gaps between the mean expectation and perception scores for each indicator. The gaps were as follows: Reliability = Empathy > Responsiveness > Safety > Assurance > Tangibles. Quality gaps differed significantly between age, education, and hospital type. The overall impression mean scores are 7.45 ± 1.18 (out of 9 points) and 7.27 ± 1.23 for general and specialized hospitals. And the willingness to recommend the hospital to others mean scores are 4.06 ± 0.62 (out of 5 points) and 3.92 ± 0.65 for general and specialized hospitals. Patients’ impression of the hospital and willingness to recommend the hospital were significantly correlated with age, citizenship, health insurance, referral type, frequency of visits, Safety, Tangibles, Reliability, and Assurance. The outpatient service provided by Shenzhen’s public hospitals did not meet patients’ needs. Hospital administrators should evaluate the quality gap of outpatient services to identify the flaws within the delivery of ambulatory care and make improvements according to the findings to drive patient-centered care.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 55%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Assessing Quality Gap of Outpatient Service in Public Hospitals: A Cross-Sectional Study in China

Lin

Hao

Zhang

2023

INQUIRY

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“…The highest and lowest overall mean scores of patients’ perception were reported in studies by Ghobadi et al (4.15 ±0.14) [ 25 ] and Havasbeigi et al (2.78 ±0.21) [ 26 ], in that order. Furthermore, the largest and smallest gaps between patients’ perceptions and expectations were reported by Farrokhi et al (gap= -1.55) [ 27 ] and, Bastani et al (gap= -0.57) [ 28 ] (Table 3 ).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 97%

Assessing the quality of hospital outpatient services in Iran: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Farrokhi

Bagherzadeh

Arab‐Zozani

et al. 2023

BMC Health Serv Res

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Background Quality healthcare services are considered one of the most effective vehicles for healthcare managers to achieve organizational goals. Therefore, this study aimed to combine the findings of comparable studies to identify consistencies and contradictions in the quality of outpatient services in Iran. Methods The current systematic review and meta-analysis study was conducted in 2022 according to PRISMA guideline. All relevant English and Persian studies were searched in databases, including Web of Sciences, PubMed, Scopus, Scientific Information Database, and Magiran. No year restriction was applied. The quality of the studies was assessed by the 22-item Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology checklist. The meta-analysis was conducted by using Open Meta Analyst, and between-study heterogeneity was investigated with I-squared statistic. Results Of the 106 retrieved articles, seven studies with a total sample size of 2600 were included in the meta-analysis. The pooled estimate of mean for overall perception was 3.95 (95% CI: 3.34- 4.55, P< 0.001, I2= 99.97), while the pooled estimate of the mean for the overall expectation was 4.43 (95% CI: 4.11- 4.75, P< 0.001, I2= 99.93). The highest and lowest perception mean scores were related to tangibility (3.52, Gap= -0.86) and responsiveness (3.30, Gap= -1.04) dimensions. Conclusion Responsiveness was identified as the weakest dimension. Therefore, managers are recommended to design suitable workforce-development programs which focus on the provision of timely and prompt services, polite and courteous interactions with patients, and prioritization of patients’ needs. Moreover, training public sector practitioners along with incentives can fill up the existing gaps.

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“…Similarly, Fiakpa et al (2022) conducted their research in Nigerian general hospitals and found perceptual differences between the patients and the employees. Farrokhi et al (2022) conducted their study in Tehran teaching hospitals and found significant differences between employees and patients' perceptions on out-patient service quality. However, authors did not find studies in the Indian healthcare context that captured and compared both the healthcare providers' (only doctors and nurses) and healthcare receivers' perceptions of quality of care.…”

Section: Employees' Perspectives On Quality Of Carementioning

confidence: 99%

The assessment of quality of care in the Indian healthcare industry: the employees’ and patients’ perspectives

Padamata,

Vangapandu

2023

BIJ

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PurposeThe purpose of this study is to capture patients' and employees' perception of quality of care in the Indian private hospitals and to find the possible perceptual gaps between both the groups.Design/methodology/approachAuthors have referred to the Victorian patient satisfaction monitoring (VPSM) scale and studied the responses of 327 patients and 327 employees collected from six private Indian tertiary care hospitals. SPSS v26 software was used to conduct the data reliability test, descriptive analysis and Mann–Whitney U test.FindingsAuthors have found significant differences in perceptions of quality of care between the patients and employees in the Indian hospitals. Employees have high positive perceptions towards the provided medical care whereas the patients have less favourable perceptions for many quality indicators.Practical implicationsThis study findings help the healthcare managers, practitioners and healthcare workers of the Indian hospitals to understand the perceptions of both the employees and the patients towards healthcare quality elements and help to reduce the existing perceptual gap in the process of providing quality healthcare services.Originality/valueTo the best of authors knowledge, this is one of the pioneering studies conducted in Indian healthcare industry to capture and compare the perceptions of both the employees' and the patients' perceptions of various quality of care elements. This study highlighted the existing perceptual gap between the employees and the patients on various healthcare quality elements and indicated the critical areas for improvement to provide high quality healthcare services.

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Evaluation of outpatient service quality: What do patients and providers think?

Cited by 6 publications

References 32 publications

Assessing Quality Gap of Outpatient Service in Public Hospitals: A Cross-Sectional Study in China

Assessing Quality Gap of Outpatient Service in Public Hospitals: A Cross-Sectional Study in China

Assessing the quality of hospital outpatient services in Iran: a systematic review and meta-analysis

The assessment of quality of care in the Indian healthcare industry: the employees’ and patients’ perspectives

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