Exploring Competitiveness of the Indian Health Sector

Abstract

Purpose

The Indian health care industry, on account of its cost advantage, is fast emerging as the first choice of patients throughout the globe. The modern day Indian health care industry, as a matter of fact, has a dual role to play. First, coming up to the expectations of global and elite Indian patients. Second, fulfilling its social obligations by catering to the needs of a huge lower-middle class of people suffering from various ailments. The litmus test for the Indian health care industry is the way in which strikes a balance in between its commercial and social obligations. The best way under the prevailing situation is to keep patients’ faith intact by rendering quality services without bothering too much about the profit. Service quality, in fact, is dependent upon the service performance and how far it is able to satisfy customers. The present study makes an endeavour to gauge the service quality in selected multi-specialty hospitals of India by garnering the views of the patients/observers pertaining to their expectations and actual perception about the services being rendered to them. The study assumes a greater importance as the players chosen for the study represent both public as well as private sector.

Research Type

Empirical

Findings

There exists a difference in the perception and expectations of the patients/observers as far as their evaluation of the hospitals on various dimensions of service quality is concerned. Both the selected hospitals have been found to be struggling on the service quality dimensions such as accessibility, promptness and timeliness. The public hospital enjoys an edge over its private counterpart on the security, accuracy and reliability aspects. The private hospital, meanwhile, has a better rating on the impressiveness front. Both hospitals have done reasonably well on the competence, customization and ambience fronts.

Practical Implications

The administrative wing of the hospitals may start viewing service quality from the clients’ perspective and make necessary changes in their service quality endeavours.

Research Limitations

Technicalities involved in understanding of the concept of service quality might have acted as a handicap for the patients/observers in giving prompt and accurate answers to the questions in hand.