محمدحسین خاکی

Quantitative research, based on the positivist paradigm, seeks to provide explanations based on universal rules, and its main purpose is an objective measurement, testing hypotheses, prediction and control. Meanwhile, "performance evaluation" is also one of the four elements of the knowledge of organization and management, which measures and assesses the status quo. So that it can be used as the basis for deciding whether to continue, modify or prevent the ongoing work. Accordingly, identifying the effective indicators on the performance, measuring the performance of the units under evaluation and recognizing their strengths and weaknesses is of great importance. Today, data envelopment analysis (DEA) is a method for comparing and evaluating the relative efficiency of the units under evaluation, that, each has similar multiple inputs and outputs. This paper reviews and analyzes the data envelopment analysis method as one of the best and most widely used tools in quantitative research.

Service quality gap is the gap between patient's expectations and perceptions of presented services. The first step in eliminating of this gap in ensuring patient satisfaction is identification of the perceptions and expectations of them from the quality of presented services. Therefore this study is performed by the target of determination of the quality of presented services in out-patient’s clinics of Shiraz training hospitals. This cross-sectional study was conducted in 2014 and statistical population was included the outpatients that referred to the clinics of training hospitals of Shiraz. In this study, 400 outpatients were selected between the referred patients in compliance with the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Data collection tools was included demographic and SERVQUAL questionnaires. Data were analyzed at a significant level of less than 0.05 by SPSS software and use of central statistics indices, independent T-test and ANOVA. The results showed that there is a negative gap between all aspects of presented services quality and a significant difference between perceptions and expectations of patients related to the quintuple aspects of service’s quality is achieved. In this study, quality gap in the aspects of empathy, responsiveness, assurance, guarantee and tangibles were calculated-0/98, -0/73, -0/79, -0/73 and -0/58, respectively. Negative gap in the aspects of quality is indicated that the patient’s expectations are more than their perception from existent conditions and there is a distance to achieve the complete satisfaction. Therefore, it can eliminate this distance with correct management, careful planning and appropriate training.