This study, which is patient-centered, examined service quality as indicated by differences of patients’ expectations and perceptions of hospitals’ services. The study also examined the relationship between patients’ perception of service quality and the overall satisfaction in the health sector. Patients were interviewed using a SERVQUAL (service quality) questionnaire proposed by Oliveira et al. (2008) with modifications to suit Ghana’s health sector. Instruments were loaded into five dimensions, including tangible, responsiveness, empathy, communication and assurance. A survey was conducted to solicit the opinions of patients who were on admission in the selected hospitals. The analysis showed that expectations of patients were higher than their perceptions and thus suggested that in four of the studied service quality dimensions, a lot more could be done to improve on the existing services. Hospitals could be guided by this approach in order to determine the levels of expectations and perceptions of the patients in order to strategize sufficiently for them.

Keywords: Perceived service quality, SERVQUAL, patients’ satisfaction, in-patient approach