Public Hospital Quality Assessment. Evidence from Greek Health Setting Using SERVQUAL Model

Aspasia Goula, Maria-Aggeliki Stamouli, Maria Alexandridou, Lemonia Vorreakou, Aristeidis Galanakis, Georgios Theodorou, Emmanouil Stauropoulos, Martha Kelesi and Evridiki Kaba
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Aspasia Goula: Master of Health and Social Care Management, Department of Business Administration, School of Administrative, Economics and Social Sciences. University of West Attica, 12243 Athens, Greece
Maria-Aggeliki Stamouli: Master of Health and Social Care Management, Department of Business Administration, School of Administrative, Economics and Social Sciences. University of West Attica, 12243 Athens, Greece
Maria Alexandridou: Master of Health and Social Care Management, Department of Business Administration, School of Administrative, Economics and Social Sciences. University of West Attica, 12243 Athens, Greece
Lemonia Vorreakou: Master of Health and Social Care Management, Department of Business Administration, School of Administrative, Economics and Social Sciences. University of West Attica, 12243 Athens, Greece
Aristeidis Galanakis: Master of Health and Social Care Management, Department of Business Administration, School of Administrative, Economics and Social Sciences. University of West Attica, 12243 Athens, Greece
Georgios Theodorou: Master of Health and Social Care Management, Department of Business Administration, School of Administrative, Economics and Social Sciences. University of West Attica, 12243 Athens, Greece
Emmanouil Stauropoulos: Master of Health and Social Care Management, Department of Business Administration, School of Administrative, Economics and Social Sciences. University of West Attica, 12243 Athens, Greece
Martha Kelesi: Department of Nursing, School of Health and Care Sciences, University of West Attica, 12243 Athens, Greece
Evridiki Kaba: Department of Nursing, School of Health and Care Sciences, University of West Attica, 12243 Athens, Greece

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 7, 1-16

Abstract: (1) Background: Health care service quality has been equated with preparedness to provide, accessibility, suitability, adequacy, friendliness and ongoing support and has been connected to service excellence. The main aim of this study was to investigate patients’ perceptions and expectations regarding the quality of health services. (2) Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional analysis was carried out in 5 public general hospitals and convenience sampling was used as the sampling technique. Questionnaires were distributed to inpatients and outpatients and 700 valid questionnaires were returned. The SERVQUAL questionnaire was used for data collection in this survey. (3) Results: Overall, in this study, it became apparent that patients’ expectations as regarding the quality of the provided services were not met. All of the five quality dimensions had a negative gap between patients’ expectations and perceptions. (4) Conclusions: The findings suggested that hospital managers and health care professionals should be interested about patient expectations and subsequently they should search out ways and means to meet them. Open communication with patients, individualized attention, as well as responsiveness to their requirements, polite behavior, trustful atmosphere across the hospital and better physical facilities are the key elements that determine the patient’s judgment about quality.

Keywords: hospital quality; public hospitals; SERVQUAL model; patient expectations; patient perceptions (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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