A Study OnThe Service Quality of Base Hospital Valaichchenai

Abstract

Hospital services have the priority as which involves with the human health. The service provided by the hospital should have the proper quality. Therefore, this study was carried out to measure the service quality of the Base Hospital Valaichenai. Service quality can be assessed by measuring the discrepancies or “gaps” between what the consumer expects and what the consumer perceives. The research problem formulated for this study was as “whether there is a service quality gap in the case of Base HospitalValaichenai?”. For the measurement of the service quality of this hospital, two variables are considered such as perceived service and expected service quality. Each variable is measured through fivedimensions as reliability, responsiveness, assurance, empathy, and tangibles. Specifically, this study seeks to determine the expectations of the patients, perceptions of them, identifying the service quality gap through comparing the expectations, and perceptions, and recommend implementation of appropriate service quality performance improvement procedures where necessary. The data for the study was got from the selected samples among the population of patients. Through random sampling method, 200 samples were selected and 200 questionnaires were issued to collect the personal and research information relevant to this study. The questionnaire was based on the multiple-item SERVQUALmodel for measuring customer perceptions, and expectations of service quality, modified and tailored to specificservicequalityrequirements of this hospital service. The data were analyzed through comparing the expectations, and perceptions. For the purpose of data analysis SPSS package and Microsoft Excel 2003 were used. Analyzed data were presented through using the tables, and charts. Data evaluation made through comparing the expectations and perceptions. The negative service quality gap was identified in this study through subtracting the expectations from the perceptions. This study concludes that there is a statistically significant difference or gap between the services offered by Base Hospital Valaichenai as perceived by patients, and the expectations of them. This study substantiates the need for management of this hospital service to take into account patients’ perceptions of service quality and their expectations, and upon identification of gaps, to implement appropriate service quality improvement processes to improve the patients’ satisfaction with the service.