Service Quality in Health Care Organisations

Abstract

In today’s customer-driven market, it is being felt increasingly that it is quality that will ultimately decide the value of the services. With in-creasing awareness among consumers about their rights, the patient, as a consumer of health services, expect and demand quality health care. The health care customer is changing qualitatively. The rising literacy rate, higher levels of income and increasing awareness through deeper penetration of the media, has brought the Indian consumer closer to demand quality health care. All these factors have not only contributed to the growth of health care sector in India but also for quality health care services. In the light of these developments, health care providers need to have a closer look at the perception of their patients and try to provide quality medical and health services to meet their expectations. It is the professional excellence, personal-touch-in-service, humanitarian approach and ethical values of the employees that play a significant role in the satisfaction of patients. The study of service quality perceptions from the patient viewpoint provides a basic feedback to the hospitals in the light of their patient-oriented and patient-centric efforts in attracting and satisfying the patients. In view of the above, an attempt is made in the study to examine how well the corporate hospitals in the private sector in Hyderabad are meeting the customers’ expectations on the service quality dimensions.