The investigation of the costumer (patient) expectations in business of hospital

Hospitals are the administrations in which healthcare services are provided. Being autonomous and privatization in hospital administration providing public service are current issue in Turkey. Recently, research towards the satisfaction of the patients and service quality in health service has being done. According to these research results, satisfaction of the patients is in high level. This contradicts with the public opinion about the hospitals. Regulation for the Patients' Rights define the legal rights which patients might demand during the health service. Customer expectations designate the quality and the satisfaction of the customer. Customer expectations directed the product and the services related to products are classified as lowest, low, acceptable, high, convenient for specified standard, and ideal. The rights in Regulation for the Patients' Rights might be accepted in the category of the expectation level convenient for specified standard. The questions of the Likert Survey prepared towards the measurements of the patients' expectations were determined based on the Regulation for the Patients' Rights. The results of the survey for the expectation of the patients were analyzed by using SPSS program. The expectations of the patients are found in high on the factor of receiving information and in acceptable level on the other factors. There are positive correlations among the factors. Statistical significance were determined between age, sex, education, health insurance, and the income of the family and the expectations of the patients. The expectations of the patients are lower than the level convenient for specified standard. The current legal regulations are in higher standards than the expectations of the patients. According to this work, the reason that the satisfaction of the patients is in high level is interpreted due to the fact that the level of the expectation is low. It is suggested that the educational and public awareness studies on the patients' rights must be done in order to increase the expectations of the patients. Key words: Health Services, Hospital, Costumer Expectations, Patient Expectation, Patient Rights, Quality, Patient satisfaction