An Empirical Study on Assessing Quality of Health - Care Services Offered by Private Hospitals Using Servqual Model

Purpose:There has been a slow but sure shift in the way health care delivery is being perceived, by both providers and patients. Patients aredemanding better quality of health care delivery both for the in-patient services, outpatient services or evenpreventive care.Health care is a rapidly growing sector which has gained much attention from researchers andpractitioners worldwide. Due to tremendously increasing cost, many hospitals attempt to adopt qualityinitiatives such as lean and/or Six Sigma to improve their service operations. Implementing such processimprovement efficiently and effectively would ultimately help in delivering the highest value to customers.Many studies add that in addition to its positive implications on patient retention and loyalty, patient satisfaction influences the rate of patient compliance with physician advice and the healing process of patients Design/Methodology/Approach:Descriptive research has been applied, describes data and characteristics about the population or phenomenon being studied. The researchers have used primary data through self-constructed structured Questionnaire and as far as the secondary data is concerned that was obtained from web sites, journals etc.Structured questionnaire was constructed to interview the patients admitted in different private hospitals on 23 different parameters on Likert‘s five point scale, which was later reduced to five factors by using the statistical technique of factor analysis. Findings:It is found that various statements like Physical Facilities are visually appealing, Appearance of doctors and staff of hospital are neat and professional, Obtain feedback and keep the patients informed and Staff and doctors of hospital understand the specific needs of the patients were found to be significant. XVI Annual Conference Proceedings January, 2015 ISBN no. 978-81-923211-7-2 http://www.internationalconference.in/XVI_AIC/INDEX.HTM Page 899 Research Limitations/Implications:The study focuses on general problems faced by patients in the private hospitals. There might be certain more variables as one patient is satisfied on particular aspect but another may not on that particular aspect.