ANALYZING AND PRIORITIZING HEALTHCARE SERVICE PERFORMANCE IN HOSPITALS USING SERQUAL MODEL

Health care is essential for both public welfare and national growth. Nevertheless, the number of hospitals has increased; patients still face many problems highlighting the need for better healthcare services. The Present study aims to analyze the quality of healthcare services in view of patients’ fulfillment and identify their requirements to provide better service in hospitals. SERVQUAL model has been applied to analyze the quality of healthcare services from 5 aspects: reliability, assurance, physicality, empathy, and approachability. Data were collected from 300 patients belonging to 30 hospitals in Jeddah. IBM/ Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) was utilized the investigation of patients’ satisfaction with hospital services. The questionnaire validation was done through SPSS. Analysis revealed that the total effects of reliability and responsibility on patients’ satisfaction were 0.550 and 0.160, while the effects of patients’ loyalty were found to be 0.666. However, the indirect effects of reliability and responsiveness on patients’ loyalty were 0.366 and 0.160. Moreover, physician’s empathy, assurance, and tangibility toward patients significantly affected their satisfaction. Management of hospitals can improve healthcare services by focusing on responsiveness, and reliability factors, which in turn affect the loyalty and satisfaction of patients. The research reviewed with the implementation of FMEA in further research evidenced the reliability and responsiveness critical dimensions in the healthcare sector and hospitals take necessary steps to enhance the quality of service focusing on reliability and responsiveness. Risk Priority Number calculation helped to find the lagging services in the healthcare sector.