Services Quality Analysis Using Importance-Performance Analysis (IPA) Tool in Selected General Hospitals in Tehran: 2011

Quality measurement and management has changed to be one of the most important topics in health care today. This study aims to analyze service quality through Importance-performance Analysis tool in selected hospitals. This is an Analytical-descriptive study. Research community was all admitted patients to four hospitals during a specific period، the sample of the study consists of 284 inpatient person selected by stratified random sampling method. The main instrument was a questionnaire consists of two parts «importance» and «performance» with the same items in 8 dimensions. Assigning the scores for each of those service items in a two-dimensional diagram with four cell، each gives special guideline for hospitals. SPSS 17. 0 for windows was employed for the scale measurement. The results of the study indicate that the most important dimensions in patients attribute with 3. 55 mean were for «accountability» and the best performance in patients point of view was for «responsiveness» and «reliability». The key dissatisfier with least importance and performance score was for «service organization» with the mean of 3. 11. In analyzing service quality، reliability، empathy، assurance and accountability dimensions were located in Cell I، service process was located in Cell II، service organization was located in Cell III and finally tangibles and responsiveness dimensions were located in Cell IV. Application of IPA to these data showed that developing service process management system in order to improve process of service delivering is important directions for hospitals to work on.