A study on servqual gap in healthcare industry with special reference to chennai city

Abstract

The health care industry, or medical industry, is the sector of the economic system that provides goods and services to treat patients with curative, rehabitlitatve or palliative care. Our nation s healthcare system affects not only the well being of our citizens, but the strength of our society as a whole. Healthcare is a critical pillar of the national security frameork that affects not only individual health, but also economic efficiency and public confidence. But defining and measuring the quality of service has been a major challenge in healthcare industry. The service quality measurement scale (SERVQUAL) has been widely used in research to measure quality of service in a hospital service environment. Service firms like hospital organizations are realizing the significance of patient-centred philosophies and are turning to quality management approaches to help in managing their businesses. Previous researches have shown that very few studies had ben conducted regarding the service quality gap especially in the private hospitals.Hence this study had been focussed on the patients satisfaction and loyalty. Descriptive research design was followed and survey method was adopted. The service quality scale has been developed based on Parasuraman et al. 1985 SERVQUAL scale with constructs namely tangibles (Physical environment), reliability (efficiency), responsiveness, assurance and empathy. This scale has two sub-components of measurements for all the constructs such as Expectation and Perception. Before the final form of constructing the questionnaire, a pilot study was observed to be useful. Hence a pilot study was conducted. The results of the study ensured the reliability of the data collection instrument. The reliability and the validity of the questionnaire was tested by collecting data from 50 representative samples. newline