ADAPTED SERVQUAL: A Health Service Quality Scale Incorporating Indicators of Sanitation and Hygiene

Examining Soft and Hard Attributes of Health Care Service Quality and Their Impacts on Patient Satisfaction and Loyalty

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES

Many studies have confirmed the influences of various service quality dimensions on patient satisfaction and loyalty, but no existing theoretical model accounts for variation in how different types of patients evaluate service quality's soft and hard attributes. This research gap may cause problems for administrators needing to decide how to distribute resources appropriately across multiple departments. Therefore, this study establishes a theoretical model of the differences between inpatients' and outpatients' evaluations of hard and soft qualities and compares such evaluations' influences on patient satisfaction and loyalty. Also, to supplement statistical analysis and respond to scholars' calls for more mixed-methods studies of health care quality, this research incorporates analysis of online reviews to provide a holistic, close to real-time picture of patients' service experience perceptions.

METHODS

This study's survey sample comprised 292 inpatients and 137 outpatients from a Taiwanese hospital. We used partial least squares structural equation modeling to test the hypothetical model and importance-performance map analysis to identify factors that were significant to the service process but performed poorly. Finally, we used a text-mining technique to scrape 536 reviews posted on Google Maps, and Leximancer Portal to perform automated content and sentiment analyses on those data, as a means of mapping the critical concepts and themes that influenced patient experiences.

RESULTS

This study's analyses support the ideas that both hard and soft qualities are critical dimensions of service quality, and that each has different influences on inpatients' and outpatients' satisfaction and loyalty. Specifically, the sampled inpatients strongly valued the hard qualities of the hospital but were not satisfied with it. On the other hand, soft qualities attracted outpatients' attention and influenced their satisfaction and loyalty. In addition, content analysis revealed that soft qualities were the main reason patients left comments, whether positive or negative. Waiting time emerged as another critical element in triggering patients' unfavorable reviews.

CONCLUSIONS

Patient population type, whether inpatient or outpatient, has been found to impact perceptions of service quality within health care institutions. As such, health care administrators should be cognizant of this phenomenon and make informed and tailored decisions when addressing quality within their respective services. Emphasis on the development of both interpersonal and professional skills among health care personnel may prove beneficial in enhancing the patient experience and ultimately fostering positive online reviews.

The Delivery Model of Perceived Medical Service Quality Based on Donabedian's Framework

ABSTRACT

The implementation of the National Health Insurance has transformed the medical care landscape in Taiwan, rendering perceived medical service quality (PMSQ) and patient satisfaction significant focal points in medical care management. Past studies mostly focused on the technical aspects of medical care services, while overlooking the patients' perception of services and the delivery process of PMSQ in the medical care experience. This study integrated the theoretical framework of the Donabedian SPO model and the SERVQUAL questionnaire. The survey was conducted among the outpatients of three types of medical institutions in northern Taiwan: academic medical centers, metropolitan hospitals, and local community hospitals. A total of 400 questionnaires were collected, and 315 valid questionnaires remained after eliminating the incomplete ones. This study established a PMSQ delivery model to explore patients' perceptions of medical service quality. It was found that the variable, Assurance, could deliver the PMSQ and enhance the Medical outcome (MO), while improving the variable, Tangible, in medical institutions could not significantly enhance the MO. These findings emphasize the importance of healthcare institutions prioritizing the professional background, demeanor of their healthcare staff, treatment methods, and processes over tangible elements.

A scale for measuring healthcare service quality incorporating patient-centred care and using a psychometric analytics framework

PURPOSE

Recent developments in healthcare contexts increasingly emphasize patient-centred approaches to service quality measures; however, few studies consider this dimension explicitly. The present study develops and psychometrically validates a scale of healthcare service quality explicitly incorporating a patient-centred care dimension from a communicational perspective. The paper also enriches the traditional content of service quality by including equity items and presents the underlying structure of service quality in an emerging country.

DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH

The final sample consisted of 869 healthcare users (complete cases in the service quality items derived from 917 surveys received) from Colombia. The authors used a psychometric analytics framework comprising seven processes incorporating exploratory factor analysis, structural equation modelling, and machine learning methods to examine construct plausibility, reliability, construct validity, equity, and criterion/predictive validity (e.g. explaining/predicting subjective well-being and behavioural intentions).

FINDINGS

The final scale consists of 17 items and satisfies all psychometric properties. Its validation allows for the discovery and psychometrical confirmation of two essential dimensions: patient-centred communication (eight items) and process quality (nine items).

PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS

The authors illustrate three practical uses of the scale: the possibility for diagnoses; hypothesis contrast based on confidence intervals; and estimation of the capacity of the service to satisfy specifications.

ORIGINALITY/VALUE

Both dimensions reveal users' relevant needs and complement previous studies that have focused on process aspects of healthcare service quality.

Developing Universally Applicable Service Quality Assessment Model Based on the Theory of Consumption Values, and Using Fuzzy Linguistic Preference Relations to Empirically Test Three Industries

Service quality is an important factor for a successful company. The SERVQUAL model is widely used. However, it has been controversial over the past 30 years. This research aims to develop a service quality measurement model that can be supported in conceptualization and universal applicability, and uses this model to identify the most important key factors of service quality for three industries. First, based on the theory of consumption values, this study used conceptualization and the modified Delphi method to develop a service quality assessment model—the consumption values-based service quality model (CV-SQ). The CV-SQ model was then used in conjunction with the fuzzy linguistic preference relations (Fuzzy LinPreRa) method to address MCDM problems. The findings suggested that the most important key factors of service quality comprised safety in the aviation companies, innovativeness in the travel agencies, and comfort in the hotels. The CV-SQ model can be supported by theoretical and empirical tests in conceptualization and universal applicability, and has made theoretical contributions to service quality management. The research results have provided practical contributions to the improvement of service quality in the three industries. What is more noteworthy is the weight of epistemic value ranked first and second among the three industries, but it had not been included in any service quality aspect classification schemes during the past three or four decades.