Measuring hospital Service Quality Gap from the viewpoint of inpatients in educational hospitals of Qazvin University of Medical Sciences (2012-13)

understanding the patient expectations and perceptions of service quality is one of the requirements for improving quality of health services. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the gap between patient’s expectations and perceptions in five dimensions of service quality in hospitals affiliated with Qazvin University of Medical Sciences.

This cross-sectional study was done on 298 patients at hospitals affiliated with Qazvin University of Medical Sciences; it is designed to evaluate the quality of health services based on client’s expectations and perceptions and to determine the strengths and weaknesses of service quality. Data collection was performed by standardized SERVQUAL questionnaire to measure quality of services. the reliability and validity of this questionnaire has previously been confirmed by studies in Iran and other countries. Data analysis was done using SPSS software and ANOVA test was performed.

The results showed that there was significant correlation between patients’ expectations and perceptions in all dimensions of quality (p<0. 05). The Reliability (2. 36) and Assurance (2. 24) dimensions have the most and responsiveness dimension (1. 98) has the lowest gap. Also (A) and (D) hospitals have the most gap and (C) hospital has the lowest.

The negative gap (expectations more than perceptions) in all dimensions of quality showed that it is necessary to improve service quality in all dimensions. in order to reduce the gap of all five dimensions of quality and provide desired services، it is recommended that hospital managers by planning and their optimal management take the patients’ needs into account.