The role of expectations in patient assessments of hospital care: an example from a university hospital network, Turkey.
OBJECTIVE
The aim of this paper is to document a study, in which the SERVQUAL scale was used to evaluate hospital services, conducting a preliminary assessment of patient attitudes regarding the important aspects of service dimensions.


METHODS
The SERVQUAL scale was implemented into routine use at the Baskent University Hospitals Network in Baskent, Turkey. The study consisted of 550 randomly chosen patients who presented to any member hospital in that network during January and February 2006 and received treatment as inpatients or outpatients at those healthcare facilities. The SERVQUAL scale was utilised to evaluate hospital services.


RESULTS
A questionnaire was completed by a total of 472 (86.0 per cent) patients. The perceived scores of the patients were higher than expected for an ordinary hospital but lower than expected for a high-quality hospital. The highest difference between the perceived service score and the expected service score was found at the Alanya Application and Research Center in Alanya, Turkey.


CONCLUSIONS
The paper demonstrates the use of the SERVQUAL scale in measuring the functional quality of the hospitals assessed.
Bakar
Coskun
C
Department of Public Health, School of Medicine, Başkent University, Ankara, Turkey. coskunb@baskent-ank.edu.tr
Akgün
H Seval
HS
Al Assaf
A F
AF
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001294:Attitude to Health; D005260:Female; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D006785:Hospitals, University; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D011787:Quality of Health Care / Q000592:standards*; D014421:Turkey