Measurement of Quality of Educational Hospital Services by the SERVQUAL Model: The Iranian Patients' Perspective.
BACKGROUND
The main mission of hospitals in any health system is to deliver high quality healthcare for patients and meet their needs and expectations. The aim of the current study was to assess the quality of the service of educational hospitals affiliated with Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences in 2015, from the perspective of patients.


METHODS
In this cross-sectional study, the perspectives of 400 patients were assessed about the quality of the services provided by educational hospitals in Kermanshah (western Iran) in 2015. The quality was assessed by the SERVQUAL questionnaire with five dimensions, i.e., tangibility, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy. In addition, the Wilcoxon test and the Kruskal-Wallis test were used to explore any association between the dependent variable and explanatory variables. The data were analyzed using Stata V.12 software.


RESULTS
There were negative gaps in all five dimensions. The highest and lowest gaps in the mean score were found in the assurance (-0.88) and responsiveness (-0.56) dimensions. The patients ranked responsiveness as the most important dimension of the quality of healthcare.


CONCLUSIONS
There were gaps between the patients' perceptions and their expectation about the five dimensions that were studied based on the SERVQUAL model. Also, it is recommended that improving the quality of healthcare is possible by various policies, such as good responsiveness, access to health workers, and delivering healthcare in less time.
Ph.D. Candidate in Health Economics, Research Center for Environmental Determinants of Health, Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, Kermanshah, Iran.
Satar
S
Rezaei
Ph.D. of Health Services Management, Associate Professor, Research Center for Environmental Determinants of Health, Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, Kermanshah, Iran.
Behzad Karami
BK
Matin
M.Sc. of Nursing, Imam Reza Hospital, Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, Kermanshah, Iran.
Khalil
K
Moradi
M.Sc. of Nursing, Imam Reza Hospital, Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, Kermanshah, Iran.
Behroz
B
Bijan
M.Sc. of Nursing, Imam Reza Hospital, Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, Kermanshah, Iran.
Masoud
M
Fallahi
B.Sc. of Nursing, School of Nursing, Aja University of Medical Sciences Student Research Committee, Tehran, Iran.
Behnam
B
Shokati
M.Sc. of Nursing, Student Research Committee, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran.
Hamid
H
Saeidi
SERVQUAL; patient’s expectation; patient’s perception; quality of healthcare