An Investigation of Expectations and Level of Services Received by Urban Patients: A Gap Analysis

Abstract

In this highly competitive era, sustainability in the health care industry has increased pressure on service providers to improve their quality of services. Nowadays, there are large numbers of public and private hospitals, providing health care services to patients. However, in order to provide patients with the best quality, the providers need to recognize the patient's needs and expectations. Along with this, a patient's perceptions play a crucial role in identifying gaps in the quality of services. This study aims to assess the health care service quality gap from customers of the health care industry in Punjab (India). Here, quality is measured by subtracting actual performance (patient's perception) from the expectations of patients. For this study, functional quality is measured using the SERVQUAL scale containing 21 statements, and primary data was collected from 750 respondents of three cities of Punjab. Results of the paired sample t-test indicated that there exists a service quality gap between services provided at 35 different public and private hospitals. Also, the findings of this study disclose some interesting facts about patients' expectations and perceptions about services provided at hospitals, which could be used by health care service providers as a tool for strategy formulation.