Service quality of private hospitals: The Iranian Patients' perspective

Abstract

BackgroundHighly competitive market in the private hospital industry has caused increasing pressure on them to provide services with higher quality. The aim of this study was to determine the different dimensions of the service quality in the private hospitals of Iran and evaluating the service quality from the patients' perspective.MethodsA cross-sectional study was conducted between October and November 2010 in Tehran, Iran. The study sample was composed of 983 patients randomly selected from 8 private general hospitals. The study questionnaire was the SERVQUAL questionnaire, consisting of 21 items in service quality dimensions.ResultsThe result of factor analysis revealed 3 factors, explaining 69% of the total variance. The total mean score of patients' expectation and perception was 4.91(SD = 0.2) and 4.02(SD = 0.6), respectively. The highest expectation and perception related to the tangibles dimension and the lowest expectation and perception related to the empathy dimension. The differences between perception and expectation were significant (p < 0.001). There was a significant difference between the expectations scores based on gender, education level, and previous hospitalization in that same hospital. Also, there was a significant difference between the perception scores based on insurance coverage, average length of stay, and patients' health conditions on discharge.ConclusionThe results showed that SERVQUAL is a valid, reliable, and flexible instrument to monitor and measure the quality of the services in private hospitals of Iran. Our findings clarified the importance of creating a strong relationship between patients and the hospital practitioners/personnel and the need for hospital staff to be responsive, credible, and empathetic when dealing with patients.

Quality Gap of Family Health Care Services in Kashan Health Centers: An Iranian Viewpoint

“…Responsiveness included the least quality gap which is different from some previous researches [19,20,25,28]. Following the responsiveness, the lowest one was in the empathy.…”

“…Result of Sharifirad et al (2012) study on clients of primary health care centers in Iran identified that the least mean quality gap and the highest one were in assurance and tangible dimensions respectively [19]. Zarei et al (2012) in their survey at private general hospitals in Iran found the highest and the lowest expectation and perception in tangibles and empathy dimensions respectively [20]. Boshoff and Gray (2004) identified that perception of quality of service positively correlate with patient satisfaction, willingness to recommend and intention to visit the hospital again [7].…”

Client Satisfaction with Service Delivery in the Health Sector: The Case of Agogo Presbyterian Hospital

“…Further, numerous studies shows that the SERVQUAL instrument has been widely applied by researchers in hospitals to measure customer perceptions of service quality (Irfan & Ijaz, 2011;Nekoei-Monghadam & Amiresmaili, 2011;Zarei, 2012). Robini & Mahadevappa, (2006) posits that it is the most appraised tool for assessing service quality in different settings, it is reliable and open for standard analysis that makes interpretation easy.…”

“…With regards to these discrepancies, Butt & de Run, (2010) remarked that it is highly crucial for healthcare providers to continuously observe and measure customer service expectations and perceptions. Suggestions to continuously monitor how well customers' expectations have been met are very obligatory as a form of after-delivery activities (Zarei et al, 2012).…”

Avaliação da qualidade do serviço de saúde: a visão do cliente

“…Este resultado corrobora os achados de um estudo realizado em oito hospitais privados no Teerã, todos os atributos da escala SERVQUAL também evidenciaram lacunas na qualidade do serviço, confirmadas pelo teste de Wilcoxon (ZAREI et al, 2012).…”