Service quality and satisfaction in healthcare sector of Pakistan— the patients’ expectations

• Published in: International journal of health care quality assurance Vol. 31; no. 6; pp. 489 - 501
• Main Authors: Javed, Saad Ahmed, Ilyas, Fatima
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Emerald Publishing Limited 09-07-2018; Emerald Group Publishing Limited
• Subjects: Adult; Clinical Competence; Competitive advantage; Competitiveness; Consumers; Data analysis; Developing countries; Disputes; Empathy; Expectations; Female; Health administration; Health care; Health care industry; Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; Health Services Research; Hospitals; Hospitals, Private - organization & administration; Hospitals, Private - standards; Hospitals, Public - organization & administration; Hospitals, Public - standards; Humans; Industrialized nations; LDCs; Male; Middle Aged; Nursing; Nursing Staff, Hospital - organization & administration; Nursing Staff, Hospital - standards; Pakistan; Patient Satisfaction; Perceptions; Policy making; Private hospitals; Private sector; Public sector; Quality of care; Quality of Health Care - organization & administration; Quality of Health Care - standards; Quality of service; Questionnaires; Reliability; Reproducibility of Results; Responsiveness; Time Factors; Pakistan; Private healthcare; Pakistan; Patient satisfaction; SERVQUAL; Service quality; Public health service
• ISSN: 0952-6862; 1758-6542
• DOI: 10.1108/IJHCQA-08-2016-0110

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to assess the influence of patients’ expectations from healthcare service quality on their satisfaction with nursing in public and private hospitals of Pakistan.
Design/methodology/approach
Data (n=456) were collected from three public sector hospitals and three private sector hospitals of Lahore, the capital of Pakistan’s most populous province. Male and female patients who have experience of both sectors were surveyed using a self-administered questionnaire developed using the original SERVQUAL approach. Data were analyzed using the statistical techniques and the Laplace criterion.
Findings
This paper attempts to explain degree of influences of five service quality constructs (empathy, responsiveness, tangibility, reliability and assurance) on Pakistani patients’ expectations from the private and public sector hospitals and thus patient satisfaction. Further, this work can offer several intuitions into the effect of five constructs of service quality on patients’ expectations of healthcare service quality and patient satisfaction with the service providers/nursing. The results reveal that the patient satisfaction is most strongly related to empathy in public sector and to responsiveness in private sector.
Research limitations/implications
In light of the previous studies and the current research findings, the study anticipates no apparently significant improvement in healthcare sector of Pakistan in near future considering various factors discussed in the study. The study will also help the service providers and the policy makers in understanding the deteriorating situation of the Pakistani healthcare sector and will guide them in identifying the areas by improving which not only the healthcare service quality in the country can be improved but also the image of healthcare sector among the masses and competitiveness of the healthcare sector can be enhanced.
Originality/value
The value of the study rests in its critical analysis of the current status of the healthcare sector of Pakistan with a view to suggest the areas that need to be worked on by the service providers and policy makers. Also, the study tries to settle a controversy within Pakistani healthcare literature concerning the question that who is producing more satisfied patients: private hospitals or their public counterparts?