|
Full Length Research Paper
|
|
Health care
service quality: A comparison of public and private
hospitals
Figen Yeşilada1 and Ebru
Direktör2
1Department
of Business Administration, Faculty of Economics and
Administrative Sciences, Izmir University of Economics, İzmir, Turkey
2Graduate
School of Social Sciences,
Near
East University, Nicosia Mersin 10, Turkey
*Corresponding author. E-mail:
fyesilada@hotmail.com.
Tel: +90 (533) 841 99 55. Fax: +90 (392) 8155110.
Accepted 4 February, 2010 |
|
|
|
Abstract |
|
|
The aim of this paper is threefold: to test the dimensionality
of the SERVQUAL instrument in the Northern Cyprus health care
industry, to assess the service quality provided in public and
private hospitals in Northern Cyprus and to identify the service
quality dimensions that play important role on patient
satisfaction. Data were collected in two phases from the same
sample, which consisted of 806 systematically selected people
above the age of eighteen. Factor analysis revealed a three
factor solution, namely; reliability-confidence, empathy and
tangibles. This result does not support the five factor model of
the original SERVQUAL. Gap analysis showed that private
hospitals have smaller gaps than public hospitals in all three
service quality dimensions. Finally, logistic regression
findings indicated that while all three dimensions are somewhat
influential on patient satisfaction, in public hospitals
tangibles dimension seems to exert no significant influence on
satisfaction. Findings are important both for public and private
hospital managers and for policy makers.
Key words:
Health care, service quality, SERVQUAL, hospitals, logistic
regression. |
