Evaluation of perceived service quality with servqual model in health institutions: A university hospital example

Nowadays, the efficient operation of service providers depends on the power of the enterprises in the competitive environment, customer satisfaction and therefore the quality of their services. For this reason, service quality has become a vital element. Businesses attach great importance to service quality in order to retain their customers and make them loyal and add value to them, as well as to increase the efficiency, profitability, branding and competitiveness of the business. Therefore, this subject has also attracted the attention of scientists, and many studies have been conducted on the measurement and evaluation of service quality. Among these studies, the SERVQUAL model developed by Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry is undoubtedly the most well-known and applied model for the measurement of service quality. This study focuses on patient expectation, patient perception and the difference between patient expectation and perception through the SERVQUAL model to measure service quality. The application was carried out on 333 patients who received service from Erzincan Binali Yıldırım University Mengücek Gazi Training and Research Hospital. The data obtained as a result of the questionnaire applied to the patients were analyzed, and the expectations and perception levels of the participants were compared according to the demographic characteristics of the participants. As a result of the analysis, the expectations of the patients were higher than their perception levels, in other words, service quality score of the hospital was low.