An Assessment of the Attitudes of Medical Tourists toward the Quality of the ‎Services ‎Delivered by Hospitals in Shiraz, Iran, Using the SERVQUAL Model

Medical tourism is one of the branches of the tourism industry and, due to its low cost vs. high ýincome, many countries seek to maximize their competitive resources in order to develop this ýindustry. Moreover, improving service quality is considered a key factor in gaining medical ýtourist's satisfaction. In Iran, Shiraz is one of the main destinations of medical tourists; therefore, ýthe present study aimed to determine medical tourist's expectations and perceptions of the ýquality of services provided by hospitals in Shiraz, Iran.
The current study is an analytical,ýþ þapplied,ýþ þand cross-sectional study whichþ þwas carried out in ýý2013. The study populationþ þconsisted of 200 medical tourists who referred to hospitals in Shiraz (Ordibehesht, Doctor Khodadoust, Pars, Madar and Koudak, and Markaziþ þand Dena). In order ýtoþ þcollectþ þinformation, an adaptation of the SERVQUAL questionnaireþ þwas used. The validity of ýthis questionnaire was approved by experts and its reliability was confirmed separately for ýexpectations and perceptions using Cronbach’s alpha (90% and 89%, respectively).ýþ þDataþ þwere ýanalyzedþ þusingþ þpaired t-test in SPSS software.
The findings of this study showed negative gaps in all dimensions of quality. Overall quality gap ýwas estimated to be -0.38. The largest gap pertained to the dimension of reliability (-0.6) andþ þthe ýsmallestþ þwas related toþ þthe dimension of accessþ þ
toþ þcare (-0.08).
The present study showed that theþ þquality of servicesþ þdid notþ þcorrespond to medical tourists’ ýexpectationsþ þand needed improvement. Moreover, improving the reliability aspect of the services provided by hospitals can be an effective factor in increasing the satisfaction of medical tourists.