Assessment of Service Quality in Addiction Treatment Centers through SERVQUAL Model in Bushehr Province

Today, services in the health sector have a special status, and measuring quality of services is a prerequisite for quality improvement. The aim of this study was to assess service quality based on the perceptions and expectations of addicts in addiction centers of Bushehr province. This cross-sectional study was conducted during the first nine months of 2016 to review the views of 650 patients presenting to addiction treatment centers located in Bushehr province. In the process of data collection, the SERVQUAL tool was used in the form of two 29-item questionnaires (in two parts of expectations and perceptions) to measure the quality of services. The validity and reliability of this tool have been confirmed by Cronbach's alpha and factor analysis. According to the research findings, the highest service quality gap pertained to access dimension (-0.764) and the lowest quality service gap was related to the responsiveness dimension (-0.44). The investigation of drug addiction centers in terms of the quality of service scores shows that the three centers Persian Gulf, Jam, and Payam Aramesh had the lowest score of quality of services; and the three centers of Novin, Salamat Gostar, and Assaluyeh held the highest scores of service quality. There was also a significant difference between expectations and perceptions of the services provided in all dimensions of services quality studied in the current research, and the service quality gap was negative. There is a need for improvement in all dimensions of service quality in addiction treatment centers. It is suggested that managers of such centers pay more attention to the needs of their clients and reduce the gap in their service quality.