PRIMARY HEALTHCARE SERVICE QUALITY MEASUREMENT: SERVQUAL SCALE

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine customers’ perceptions of primary healthcare service quality in public institutions in the city of Šibenik. The research was aimed at investigating whether there is difference between customers` expectations and their satisfaction with received medical services. The findings suggest that primary healthcare public institutions need to improve all the dimensions of SERVQUAL service quality from the gap analysis carried out. Furthermore, the research analyzed whether there is difference in the perception of given healthcare service between examinees considering their gender, age, employment status and frequency of using the mentioned services. It was established that demographic variables of age and gender do not generate significant differences in the perception of healthcare service quality while there is significant difference in satisfaction regarding employment status and frequency of services usage. The given results partially differ from the data acquired in other relevant and similar studies. The factor analysis which was conducted did not confirm “a priori” accepted theoretical model of Parasuraman et al. (1988) which claims that the concept of quality has five dimensions. On the contrary, it reached the conclusion that three highly reliable factors were identified regarding the perceived quality of primary healthcare services.