Patient evaluation of service quality in government homeopathic hospitals in West Bengal, India: a cross‐sectional survey

Abstract

Background Service quality (SQ) is the perceived difference between expectation and performance along the quality dimensions. It is central to the process of continuous quality improvement; however, SQ has rarely been studied in homeopathic hospital settings. Objective To examine the quality of service provided by four government homeopathic hospitals in West Bengal, India. Methods In this cross‐sectional survey, 644 patients from a systematically selected sample were invited to complete a modified Bengali SERVQUAL instrument (a quality management framework comprising 22 items with four‐point Likert scale response sets descending from 4=strongly agree to 1=strongly disagree). The SQ expectation and perception scores were generated across five dimensions: reliability, responsiveness, empathy, assurance and tangibles. Service‐quality gaps were then analysed. Results Mean differences between patient perceptions and expectations of SQ revealed statistically significant gaps (P<0.0001) across all five dimensions and all 22 individual items of the survey. Multiple regression found residence significantly (P<0.001) influenced perceived quality gaps. The questionnaire used in this study showed promising psychometrics, including acceptable internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha ≥ 0.6) and item‐corrected total correlations (ICC; Pearson's r >0.3). Conclusion The services patients received at various homeopathic hospitals in West Bengal, India, did not meet patient expectations across the five domains of SERVQUAL. This gap needs to be addressed through focused improvement efforts.

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