Patients’ Perception of Service Quality of Health Care Services in India

Abstract

Service quality is considered as a key component for employer brand that is determined through customers’ satisfaction. In this context, the primary goal of the health care industry is to provide the best possible service to their patients in order to sustain in the market. An assessment will give an opportunity to find out the loopholes in the services for future rectifications and to reach the desired goal. This study is, therefore, an attempt to measure the perception of patients regarding quality of health care services in India along with a comparative study on urban and rural hospitals. Here, current status of health care service quality and preferred service dimensions of urban and rural patients in India was investigated through literature review and questionnaire survey. Data were collected from 368 patients, who were then hospitalized or already discharged. The Service Quality Measurement scale (SERVQUAL) was applied to verify the hypotheses. The findings reveal that the health care service quality was unsatisfactory and patients’ preferences of dimensions were distinct in urban and rural areas. These gaps exist due to lack of knowledge, costly modern medical substances and treatments and so on. The study has implication in maintaining standard of health care service quality, making policies and serving research purposes.

Gender and Age Differences in Patient Satisfaction with Dental Care in the Urban and Rural Areas of Indonesia: Pilot Pathfinder Survey

“…Some literature has made it clear that location including distance is a very important factor; especially longer distances such as rural areas can inhibit respondents for health care and ultimately reduce their satisfaction levels. The report published by the Government of India's Family Health Ministry and Family Welfare in 1996 stipulates the ratio of health care conditions in urban and rural India although the population in rural areas is higher than in urban areas, the health quality is worse in rural areas compared to urban area [32]. People from rural areas tend to use oral health services rather than those living in urban areas [33].…”

“…In addition, this survey is similar to previous research indicating that people in urban areas have better accessibility than others thus delaying their treatment. Access to health care facilities appears to be less on urban issues than in rural areas, although travel expenditures tend to increase rapidly from a small village to a big city [29][30][31][32][33][34].…”

Patient Satisfaction on Health Service Center In Urban and Rural Area

“…Several literature has described that the location including the distance is a very important factor, especially over longer distance such as the rural area may hamper the respondents to health services and ultimately reduce their level of satisfaction (Ezat et al, 2010). Pramanik explained that the report published by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare Government of India in 1996 declared a state of health care ratio of urban and rural India (Pramanik, 2016). It is found that there is a big gap between the health status of urban and rural health status.…”

“…Employment status of medical personnel in primary health consists of 71 general practitioners, 34 dentists and specialist doctor yet, staffing of medical personnel in hospitals Kutai Kartanegara consists of 44 general practitioners, 44 specialists many, and 8 dentists ( Dinas Kesehatan Provinsi Kalimantan Timur, 2013, Kutai Kartanegara dalam angka, 2006. Based on data from District Health Bureau, known ratio of medical staff per 100,000 population is 7.3 dentists per 100,000 (Pramanik, 2016). When compared to the standards established by the World Health Association namely the dentist was 50 per 100,000 population, thus when the number of the population is not balanced by the number of health workers, it will affect the quality of health services and the impact on people's satisfaction and will continue to the decision of choosing a better service elsewhere (World Health Organization, Alotaibi, 2016).…”

The relationship between perceived service quality of antenatal care and use among rural women in Ghana

“…However, measuring health service quality is a complicated process (Pramanik, 2016), and a number of dimensions of service quality have been suggested (Brady and Cronin, 2001;Scotti et al, 2007). Researchers are of the opinion that actual improvement in the quality of health care cannot occur if the perceptions of the patients or users are not involved (Bhattacharjee, 2007;Pramanik, 2016;Sharma and Narang, 2011). The importance of patients' perception lies in the fact that it has a huge impact on their "health-seeking behaviour", including actual service utilisation.…”