Gearing service quality into public and private hospitals in small islands

作者：Hüseyin Araslı, Erdoğan H. Ekiz, Salih Katırcıoğlu · 发表于：International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance · 年份：2008 · DOI：10.1108/09526860810841129 · 被引用次数：171 · 研究领域：Customer Service Quality and Loyalty、Patient Satisfaction in Healthcare、Healthcare Quality and Management

PURPOSE: The purpose of this research is to develop and compare some determinants of service quality in both the public and private hospitals of Northern Cyprus. There is considerable lack of literature with respect to service quality in public and private hospitals. DESIGN/METHOD/APPROACH: Randomly, 454 respondents, who have recently benefited from hospital services in Famagusta, were selected to answer a modified version of the SERVQUAL Instrument. The instrument contained both service expectations and perceptions questions. FINDINGS: This study identifies six factors regarding the service quality as perceived in both public and private Northern Cyprus hospitals. These are: empathy, giving priority to the inpatients needs, relationships between staff and patients, professionalism of staff, food and the physical environment. Research results revealed that the various expectations of inpatients have not been met in either the public or the private hospitals RESEARCH IMPLICATIONS/LIMITATIONS: At the micro level, the lack of management commitment to service quality in both hospital settings leads doctors and nurses to expend less effort increasing or improving inpatient satisfaction. Hospital managers should also satisfy their employees, since job satisfaction leads to customer satisfaction and loyalty. Additionally, hospital administrations need to gather systematic feedback from their inpatients, establish visible and transparent complaint procedures so that inpatients' compl...