Prethodno priopćenje
https://doi.org/10.3935/rsp.v17i1.900
Measuring Health Care Service Quality by Using SERVQUAL
Tatjana Škare
; Osnovna škola dr. Ivana Merza
Vatroslav Škare
; Sveučilište u Zagrebu, Ekonomski fakultet
Đurđana Ozretić Došen
; Sveučilište u Zagrebu, Ekonomski fakultet
Sažetak
The paper deals with the reflections on the problems involved in the measurement of the quality of health care services. It presents theoretical contributions to a study of specific characteristics of services marketing in health care, including a review of the results of a previous research which measured customer satisfaction with health care services. Special attention is devoted to a presentation of the most frequently used model of service quality measurement or SERVQUAL, which is also widely used for measuring the service quality within health care. The paper presents the results of a research of the quality of health care services provided by primary health care institutions in the City of Zagreb and the Zagreb County (with a special emphasis on public sector health care institutions) by using the SERVQUAL scale. The research focuses on the extent to which the Croatian customers use the services of the public sector vs. those of private sector primary health care institutions. It attempts to determine the importance paid to individual dimensions of service quality and to find out whether there are any significant gaps between the perceptions by customers and their expectations of the quality of services provided by primary health care institutions. The results revealed a significant gap between the perceptions and expectations by health care service users, while showing that the gap varies according to different dimensions of service quality. The management of public sector primary health care institutions ought to improve their service according to all dimensions of service quality. At the same time, they should pay particular attention to the dimensions where this gap was found to be the largest, i.e. »responsiveness«, »assurance« and »reliability«. No connection was established between the size of the measured gap as far as any individual service quality dimension is concerned, and the significance of that particular dimension for service users as compared to other dimensions. The paper may prompt the management and employees of health care institutions to conduct further measuring of their service quality in the future so as to identify the elements which must be improved in order to enhance customer satisfaction.
Ključne riječi
services marketing; service quality; health care; SERVQUAL
Hrčak ID:
48800
URI
Datum izdavanja:
13.3.2010.
Posjeta: 6.798 *