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

Sabahi Bidgoli, Mohammad; Kebriaei, Ali; Moosavi, Sayed Gholamabas

doi:10.18052/www.scipress.com/ILSHS.70.14

ILSHS > ILSHS Volume 70 > Quality Gap of Family Health Care Services in...

< Back to Volume

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

Full Text PDF

Abstract:

Background and Aim: Patients' viewpoints are commonly used to assess quality of care in diverse healthcare organizations. This permits managerial decisions to be made based on knowledge rather than conjecture. The purpose of the current study is to investigate quality gap of family health care through measuring differences between clients’ perceptions and expectations at Kashan city health centers in Iran.Methodology: A cross-sectional design was applied in 2013. The study sample was composed of 384 women clients of family health services randomly selected from Kashan city health centers. The SERVQUAL questionnaire was used for data collection. Service quality gap was measured by computing the difference between the rating respondents assign to expectations and perceptions statements. For pair wise comparison of the expectations and perceptions the Wilcoxon Signed Rank test was used. Internal consistency of the scale was confirmed with Cronbach's Alpha coefficients (.81 for expectations and .84 for perceptions).Findings: In all dimensions of the services a significant (P<0.001) negative quality gap was observed. The maximum quality gap was in the tangibility (-0.60±0.37) and the minimum one was in the responsiveness (-0.41±0.31) dimension.Conclusions: The findings of the research demonstrated that there was negative gap between clients’ expectations and perceptions in all dimensions of the services. Thus, family health care managers should apply improvements in all five dimensions of the services.

Info:

Periodical:

International Letters of Social and Humanistic Sciences (Volume 70)

Pages:

14-20

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18052/www.scipress.com/ILSHS.70.14

Citation:

M. Sabahi Bidgoli et al., "Quality Gap of Family Health Care Services in Kashan Health Centers: An Iranian Viewpoint", International Letters of Social and Humanistic Sciences, Vol. 70, pp. 14-20, 2016

Online since:

June 2016

Authors:

Mohammad Sabahi Bidgoli, Ali Kebriaei, Sayed Gholamabas Moosavi

Keywords:

Family Health, Female, Iran, Perceptions

Export:

RIS, BibTeX, Text

Distribution:

Open Access

This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

References:

[1] S. Pariseau, J. McDaniel, Assessing service quality in schools of business, International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management. 3 (1997) 204-218.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/02656719710165455

[2] A. Wilson, V. Zeithaml, M. Bitner, D. Gremler, Services marketing: Integrating customer focus across the firm: McGraw Hill Inc. NY, (2008).

[3] R. Rust, T. Keiningham, S. Clemens, A. Zahorik, Return on quality at chase Manhattan Bank, Interfaces. (1999) 62-72.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1287/inte.29.2.62

[4] M. Sohail, Service quality in hospitals: More favorable than you think, Managing Serv Qual. 3 (2003) 197-206.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/09604520310476463

[5] N. Johns, T. Avci, O. Karatepe, Measuring service quality in travel agents: Evidence from Northern Cyprus, The Service Industries J. 3 (2004) 82-100.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/0264206042000247777

[6] A. Kara, S. Lonial, M. Tarim, S. Zaim A paradox of service quality in Turkey: The seemingly contradictory relative importance of tangible and intangible determinants of service quality, Eur Bus Rev. 1 (2005) 5-20.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/09555340510576230

[7] C. Boshoff, B. Gray, The relationship between service quality, customer satisfaction and buying intentions in the private hospital industry, South Afr J Bus Manage. 4 (2004) 27-37.

[8] M. Hocutt, Relationship dissolution model: antecedents of relationship commitment and the likelihood of dissolving a relationship, International Journal of Service Industry Management. 2 (1998) 189-200.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/09564239810210541

[9] L. Douglas, R. Connor, Attitudes to service quality - the expectation gap, Nutrition & Food Science. 4 (2003) 165-172.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/00346650310488516

[10] T. Juwaheer, Exploring international tourists' perceptions of hotel operations by using a modified SERVQUAL approach - a case study of Mauritius, Managing Service Quality. 5 (2004) 350-364.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/09604520410557967

[11] A. Parasuraman, V. Zeithaml, L. Berry, A conceptual model of service quality and its implications for future research, Journal of Marketing. 49 (1985) 41-50.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/1251430

[12] M. Ahuja, S. Mahlawat, R. Zehra Masood, Study of service management with SERVQUAL model: An empirical study of GOVT/NGO'S eye hospitals in Haryana, Indian Journal of Commerce & Management Studies. 2 (2011) 310-318.

[13] M. Donnelly, M. Wisniewski, J. Dalrymple, A. Curry, measuring service quality in local government: The SERVQUAL approach, International Journal of Public Sector Management. 7 (1995) 15-20.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/09513559510103157

[14] M. Butt, E. de Run, Private healthcare quality: applying a SERVQUAL model, International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance. 7 (2010) 658-673.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/09526861011071580

[15] G. Al-Qatari, D. Haran, Determinants of users' satisfaction with primary health care settings and services in Saudi Arabia, International Journal for Quality in health care 6 (1999) 523-531.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/intqhc/11.6.523

[16] P. Lim, N. Tang, A Study of patients' expectations and satisfaction in Singapore hospitals, International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance. 7 (2000) 290-299.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/09526860010378735

[17] A. Thompson, R. Sunol, Expectations as determinants of patient satisfaction: concepts, theory and evidence, Int J Qual Health Care. 2 (1995) 127-141.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/intqhc/7.2.127

[18] M. Wisniewski, H. Wisniewski, Measuring service quality in a hospital colposcopy clinic. Int J Health Care Qual. 18: 3 (2005) 217-229.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/09526860510594776

[19] G. Sharifirad, M. Shamsi, A. Pirzadeh, P. Farzanegan, Quality gap in primary health care services in Isfahan: Women's perspective, Journal of Education and Health Promotion. 1 (2012) 45-50.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.4103/2277-9531.104815

[20] A. Zarei, M. Arab, A. Rahimi Froushani, A. Rashidian, S. Ghazi Tabatabaei, Service quality of private hospitals: The Iranian patients' perspective, Health Services Research. 12: 1 (2012) 31.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/1472-6963-12-31

[21] A. Parasuraman, V. Zeithaml, L. Berry, SERVQUAL: A multiple item scale for measuring consumer perceptions of service quality, Journal of Retailing. 1 (1988) 12-40.

[22] L. Galloway, Quality perceptions of internal and external customers: a case study in educational administration, The TQM Magazine. 1 (1998) 20-26.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/09544789810197774

[23] P. Punnakitikashem, N. Buavaraporn, P. Maluesri, K. Leelartapin, Health care service quality: case example of a hospital with lean implementation. POMS 23 rd Annual Conference (2012) April 20 to April 23; Chicago, Illinois, U.S. A.

[24] P. Ramseook-Munhurrun, S. Lukea-Bhiwajee, N. Perunjodi. service quality in the public service, International Journal of management and Marketing research. 1 (2010) 37-50.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/09604520910984364

[25] A. Kebriaei, F. Akbari, Quality gap of primary health care services at Kashan District Health Centers, Iran. Journal of Medical Sciences. 3 (2006) 393-399.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3923/jms.2006.393.399

[26] A. Lobo, V. Jain, Port users' perspective of the container transshipment business: hierarchy of service quality attributes and dimensions, Singapore Maritime and Port Journal. 5: 1 (2002) 154-161.

[27] C. Ugboma, I. Callistus, I. Ogwude, Service quality measurements in ports of a developing economy: Nigerian ports survey, Managing Service Quality. 6 (2004) 487-495.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/09604520410569829

[28] A. Mohammadi, J. Mohammadi, Evaluating quality of health servicees in health centers of Zanjan district of Iran, Indian J Public Health. 4 (2012) 308-313.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.4103/0019-557x.106422

[29] A. Mei, A. Dean, C. White. Analysis of service quality in the hospitality industry, Managing Service Quality. 2 (1999) 136-143.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/09604529910257920

[30] C. Bakar, S. Akgun, F. AL Assaf, The role of expectations in patient assessments of hospital care, International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance. 4 (2008) 343-351.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/09526860810880144

[31] W. Ramez, Patients' Perception of health care quality, satisfaction and behavioral intention: an empirical study in Bahrain, International Journal of Business and Social Science. 18 (2012) 131-141.

[32] F. Yesilada, E. Direktor, Health care service quality: A comparison of public and private hospitals, African Journal of Business Management. 6 (2010) 962-971.

[33] A. Curry, E. Sinclair, Assessing the quality of physiotherapy services using SERVQUAL, International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance. 5 (2002) 197-205.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/09526860210437412

Show More Hide

Cited By:

This article has no citations.