Antecedents of Service Quality in Public Hospitals in South-South Geo-Political Zone of Nigeria

Abstract

This study focused on antecedents of service quality in public hospitals in South-South Geo-Political Zone of Nigeria. It specific objectives were to determine the influence of physical facilities, waiting time, patients appointment schedule, patient interactions, hospital employees competency, and physical design which were proxies of antecedents on service quality towards patients satisfaction. It was a field survey type of research. Due to large population and inability to obtain population of patients in some hospital in South-South Geo-Political zone, Cochran estimation formular was used to achieve sample size of 384. Convenience and purposive sampling techniques were used in selecting the sample size. The main instruments were observation and questionnaire administration prepared in 5 point-likert scale form, while the statistical tool was least square regression. Data collected was estimated using statistical package for social sciences (SPSS version 21). The findings showed that physical facilities, waiting time, patients’ appointment schedule, hospital employees competency have significant influence on enhancement of service quality, which by implications were critical antecedents of service quality. While, patient interactions and physical design have no significant influence on service quality, indicating that they are weak antecedents of service quality towards patients’ satisfaction. The study hence concluded that antecedents of service quality could enhance patients’ satisfaction in public hospitals in South-South Geo-political zone of Nigeria. This study therefore recommended that management of hospitals should critically looked at issues of sophisticated modern physical hospital facilities.  reduction of waiting time, keeping to patients appointment schedule on the basis of first come first serve, employment of qualified competent physicians and supporting staff in the hospital

Keywords: Antecedents, Service Quality and Hospital

DOI: 10.7176/EJBM/12-23-11

Publication date:August 31^st 2020