Measuring Service Quality Dimensions: an Empirical Study of Private Hospitals in Jaffna District, Sri Lanka

Abstract

The quality of hospitals services has a significant impact on customer satisfaction of healthcare in private hospitals of Jaffna District in Sri Lanka. The objective of the study is to assess the important dimensions of service quality in the services offered by private hospitals and to understand the factors that influence service quality in private hospitals. The findings of this study could provide useful information as to how hospitals could better manage their services to enhance their service quality. A questionnaire survey was conducted on 250 patients those availed health services from a private hospital in Jaffna District.

Service quality were measured based on customer satisfaction levels by using a questionnaire which was consist the service quality dimensions of tangible, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, empathy, and communication. The research findings indicated that all factors have positive correlations and the relationship among variables is significant. And further more Jaffna district private hospitals’ patients rated the reliability dimension the most important of all, followed by tangibles, assurance, empathy, responsiveness, whereas the communication dimension rated least important of all. By considering these findings, the hospital will make the patients satisfied with its services, and in turn improve their willingness to recommend the hospitals' services to others.

Keywords: Service quality, SERVQUAL model, Customer perception, Private hospitals