Measuring service quality at binh phuoc hospitala dimension - By - dimension analysis

Nội dung text: Measuring service quality at binh phuoc hospitala dimension - By - dimension analysis

1. TẠP CHÍ PHÁT TRIỂN KH&CN, TẬP 13, SỐ Q1 - 2010 MEASURING SERVICE QUALITY AT BINH PHUOC HOSPITAL- A DIMENSION-BY-DIMENSION ANALYSIS Ha Nam Khanh Giao(1), Le Anh Phuong(2) (1) International University, VNU-HCM (2) Krohde-Schwarz Company (Manuscript Received on July 22nd, 2009, Manuscript Revised January 29th, 2009) ABSTRACT: Service quality is still a new concept to those working in health care services since it has not been identified as a mandatory factor to increase competitiveness. Although Bình Phước Hospital has implemented a survey on patients’ comments, the result has not yet reflected the comprehensive service quality given by the hospital. The research aims to conduct an assessment on service quality at Bình Phước Hospital based on the model of SERVQUAL under the form of dimension-by-dimension analysis. The outcome would help the management to have a clear and full picture about the current service quality. Consequently, recommendations will be provided according to the findings. Keywords: SERVQUAL, hospital, measuring service quality. current service quality meet patients’ 1. INTRODUCTION expectations. Background Binh Phuoc General Hospital is based in During the past five years, the living Dong Xoai town, Binh Phuoc province. standard of Vietnamese people has been Established since 1999, the hospital now has significantly increasing. Vietnam is considered seven departments and twenty medical wards as emerging economy of Asia Pacific. Service with total employees of 546. The bed capacity sectors have started to be shaped and grown so of the hospital reaches 450 beds with the total fast, in which health care service becomes of inpatients of 31,277 and 37,246 in 2007 and more and more important. However, it can be 2008 respectively (Binh Phuoc Hospital, 2008). seen that the current capability of hospitals The research aims to assess the current does not meet the high demand of patients in service quality at Binh Phuoc Province General Vietnam. Regarding health care service in Hospital basing on SERVQUAL model, to Vietnam, “service quality” is a relatively new explore patients’ expectations on service academic phrase. An understanding, and quality at internal medical ward of Binh Phuoc measurement, of service quality has been aware Province General Hospital. and evaluated by the patient is very crucial and essential for the hospitals to recognize the 2. THEORY BASE OF SERVICE current level of service provided and whether QUALITY Trang 31
2. Science & Technology Development, Vol 13, No.Q1- 2010 2.1. Characteristics of Services The research would use SERVQUAL Many definitions of service are defined and (Service Quality) model developed by most of all contain a common theme of Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry (1988). The intangibility and simultaneous consumption. To SERVQUAL with five dimensions including make it simple, “services are deeds, processes, 22 items (statements), and a 5 point Likert and performances” (Zeithaml & Bitner, 2000). scale, with “Strongly Disagree” equal to value 1 and “Strongly Agree” equal to value 5, that The characteristics of service made it differ purportedly measure consumer’s expectations from physical goods. It includes four main and perceptions of service performance. The features: intangibility, heterogeneity, five dimensions of SERVQUAL model used perishability, inseparability of production and are: consumption (Parasuraman, Zeithaml & Berry: 1988). Reliability: The ability to perform the promised service both dependably and 2.2. Definition of service quality accurately Service quality is a highly abstract Responsiveness: The willingness to help construct, where all the characteristics are customers and to provide prompt service. different to goods. Service quality based on Assurance: The knowledge and courtesy perception concept is developed by of employees as well as their ability to convey Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry (1985, 1988) trust and confidence. in a way of five gaps. They proposed SERVQUAL model in which service quality is Empathy: The provision of caring, a function of the differences between individualized attention to customers. expectation and performance along the quality Tangibles: The appearance of physical dimensions. They developed the gap model in facilities, equipment, personnel, and which they defined perceived service quality communication materials. “as the degree and direction of the discrepancy By measuring the gap scores, service between consumers’ perceptions and quality = Customers’ Perceptions (P) – expectations”. The model predicted that Customers’ Expectation or in short Q = P – E, perceive service quality could be quantified by each service quality aspect is analyzed to the measurement of subtracting the consumers’ providing the research results. Then the rating perception of service quality (P) and dimension-by-dimension analysis is conducted. their rating expectation of service quality (E) calculated as Service Quality = P – E. 3. ANALYSIS ANG FINDINGS 2.3. Measuring Service Quality 3.1. Sample description Trang 32
3. TẠP CHÍ PHÁT TRIỂN KH&CN, TẬP 13, SỐ Q1 - 2010 Data were gathered from a sample of 250 while outpatients have 21.1 % of those joined respondents whose age were above fifteen. At in the survey. In terms of payment, free-of- the end of survey, 181 questionnaires were charge cases are not many, only 3.1 %, collected corresponding to the response rate of chargeable cases account for 49.2 % and 72.4%. Nevertheless, among the returning data, payment under health insurance is 47.7 %. only 128 questionnaires were available to 3.2. Respondents response of Expectation analyze as they provide enough information for Table 1 indicates that the expectation analysis. 53 of questionnaires were omitted due scores are consistently high across all to specific reasons dimensions, although that for Empathy was According to the statistics data, 89.8 % of noticeably lower. More detailed analysis on respondents are Kinh people whereas 10.2 % expectation score will be provided in the belongs to other ethnic minorities. 62.5% of following part. Summary score classified into participants are male, and 37.5 % of dimension is presented as below. participants are female. Inpatients have 78.9 % Table 1. Descriptive Statistics of Expectation Std. Items N Min Max Mean D E1 Doctors/Nurses use up-to date equipment for treatment. 128 1 5 4.40 .714 E2 Hospital is always clean, hygiene. 128 1 5 4.51 .794 E3 Hospital staff will be neat in appearance. 128 1 5 4.42 .728 E4 Hospital has clear and informative guiding boards. 128 2 5 4.49 .640 E5 Patients have trust in their dealing with the hospital. 128 1 5 4.46 .720 When patients have problems, hospital staff will show a E6 128 1 5 4.38 .733 sincere interest in solving it. E7 Hospital always provides free-error treatment diagnosis. 128 1 5 4.55 .772 E8 Patients are informed clearly about their health condition. 128 2 5 4.49 .710 Patients are informed clearly about the medical treatment E9 128 1 5 4.36 .801 that they will receive. E10 Hospital keeps medical record of patients individually. 128 1 5 4.20 .873 Hospital staff will inform patients exactly when services will E11 128 3 5 4.43 .584 be performed. E12 Hospital staff will provide prompt service when requested. 128 1 5 4.39 .806 E13 Hospital staff are always be willing to help patients. 128 1 5 4.41 .737 E14 Staff will never be too busy to respond to patients’ 128 1 5 4.18 .798 Trang 33
4. Science & Technology Development, Vol 13, No.Q1- 2010 questions. During duty period, hospital staff always provide prompt E15 128 1 5 4.22 .752 service. E16 Hospital staff are consistently courteous with patients. 128 2 5 4.48 .753 E17 Hospital staff have knowledge to answer patients’ questions. 128 2 5 4.49 .687 E18 The care of hospital staff instills confidence in patients. 128 1 5 4.52 .675 E19 Hospital has operating hours convenient to patients. 128 1 5 4.42 .728 E20 Hospital staff show attention to individual patient. 128 1 5 4.21 .790 E21 Hospital staff understand the specific needs of patients. 128 1 5 4.05 .925 E22 Hospital staff understand the patients’ best interest. 128 1 5 4.10 .859 3.3. Respondents response of Perception performance given by Bình Phước hospital. The lowest scores fell into empathy dimension On the contrary, table 2 shows perception indicating that the individualize attention scores reflected patients’ perception on service provided was not relative high. Table 2. Descriptive Statistics of Perception Items N Min Max Mean Std. D P1 Doctors/Nurses use up-to date equipment for treatment. 128 1 5 3.69 .903 P2 Hospital is always clean, hygiene. 128 1 5 3.46 1.149 P3 Hospital staff will be neat in appearance. 128 1 5 3.91 .837 P4 Hospital has clear and informative guiding boards. 128 1 5 3.72 .896 P5 Patients have trust in their dealing with the hospital. 128 1 5 3.53 .996 When patients have problems, hospital staff will show a P6 128 1 5 3.45 1.011 sincere interest in solving it. P7 Hospital always provides free-error treatment diagnosis. 128 1 5 3.52 .964 Patients are informed clearly about their health P8 128 1 5 3.79 .953 condition. Patients are informed clearly about the medical treatment P9 128 1 5 3.73 1.010 that they will receive. P10 Hospital keeps medical record of patients individually. 128 1 5 3.81 .920 Hospital staff will inform patients exactly when services P11 128 1 5 3.84 .909 will be performed. Hospital staff will provide prompt service when P12 128 1 5 3.38 1.036 requested. P13 Hospital staff are always be willing to help patients. 128 1 5 3.52 .972 Trang 34
5. TẠP CHÍ PHÁT TRIỂN KH&CN, TẬP 13, SỐ Q1 - 2010 Staff will never be too busy to respond to patients’ P14 128 1 5 3.30 .901 questions. During duty period, hospital staff always provide prompt P15 128 1 5 3.30 1.030 service. P16 Hospital staff are consistently courteous with patients. 128 1 5 3.48 .939 Hospital staff have knowledge to answer patients’ P17 128 1 5 3.59 .934 questions. P18 The care of hospital staff instills confidence in patients. 128 1 5 3.55 .971 P19 Hospital has operating hours convenient to patients. 128 1 5 4.02 .931 P20 Hospital staff show attention to individual patient. 128 1 5 3.55 1.002 P21 Hospital staff understand the specific needs of patients. 128 1 5 3.24 1.025 P22 Hospital staff understand the patients’ best interest. 128 1 5 3.19 1.070 3.4. Reliability analysis decided to delete these items for the next analysis stage. Cronbach’s alpha of reliability Cronbach’s alpha was used to assess the dimension was again computed without E10 reliability of a set of variables of a survey. and E13. Alpha value increased to 0.84. Variable whose corrected item-to total Similarly, perceived data was applied to the correlation was smaller than 0.3 would be scale reliability check. Cronbach’s alpha were omitted. Criteria to choose the variable was almost high and above 0.7. that coefficient alpha was greater than 0.7 (Hoàng Trọng & Mộng Ngọc, 2005). 3.5. Gap between customer expectation and As seen from the table, Cronbach’s alpha perception of reliability dimension has 0.804, which In table 3, the gap score for each statement passed the cut-off value required for further is calculated as Perception - Expectation. A analysis. However, there was one item E10 positive gap score shows that expectations have “Hospital keeps medical record of patients been met or exceeded and a negative score individually” which corrected item-to total demonstrates that expectations are not being correlation was really small compared to other met. Then the gap scores for each dimension items in the same dimension. Additionally, (Di) are assessed, and finally that of the corrected item-to total correlation of E13 average gap score of service quality (Av) “Hospital staff is always be willing to help patients” is below the criteria of 0.3 (Hoàng Trọng & Mộng Ngọc, 2005). Therefore, we Table 3. Gap between customer expectation and perception Items P E P-E Di Av Trang 35
6. Science & Technology Development, Vol 13, No.Q1- 2010 Doctors/Nurses use up-to date E1 3.69 4.4 -0.71 -0.81297 equipment for treatment. Hospital is always clean, E2 3.46 4.51 -1.05 hygiene. Tangibles -0.76 Hospital staff will be neat in E3 3.91 4.42 -0.51 appearance. Hospital has clear and E4 3.72 4.49 -0.77 informative guiding boards. Patients have trust in their E5 3.53 4.46 -0.93 dealing with the hospital. When patients have problems, E6 hospital staff will show a 3.45 4.38 -0.93 sincere interest in solving it. Hospital always provides free- Reliability E7 3.52 4.55 -1.03 -0.84 error treatment diagnosis. Patients are informed clearly E8 3.79 4.49 -0.7 about their health condition. Patients are informed clearly E9 about the medical treatment 3.73 4.36 -0.63 that they will receive. Hospital staff will inform E11 patients exactly when services 3.84 4.43 -0.59 will be performed. Hospital staff will provide E12 prompt service when 3.38 4.39 -1.01 Responsiveness requested. -0.85 Staff will never be too busy to E14 3.3 4.18 -0.88 respond to patients’ questions. During duty period, hospital E15 staff always provide prompt 3.3 4.22 -0.92 service. Hospital staff are consistently Assurance E16 3.48 4.48 -1 -0.82 courteous with patients. Hospital staff have knowledge E17 3.59 4.49 -0.9 to answer patients’ questions. Trang 36
7. TẠP CHÍ PHÁT TRIỂN KH&CN, TẬP 13, SỐ Q1 - 2010 The care of hospital staff E18 3.55 4.52 -0.97 instills confidence in patients. Hospital has operating hours E19 4.02 4.42 -0.4 convenient to patients. Hospital staff show attention to E20 3.55 4.21 -0.66 individual patient. Hospital staff understand the Empathy E21 3.24 4.05 -0.81 -0.79 specific needs of patients. Hospital staff understand the E22 3.19 4.1 -0.91 patients’ best interest. There is no statement of how a gap score is In general, we got the negative score for all considered high, especially when using the 1-5 gaps between perception and expectation on all Likert scale system from the previous dimensions, the average gap score is -0.8129, researches (Parasuraman et al, 1988, Ziethaml which can be considered acceptable for the et al., 1988, 2000, Karen, 1988, Hoffman & overall service quality. The result shows that Bateson, 2000). Let’s assume that the gap score the three factors “Responsiveness”, of under 0.5 (less than 10% oh the highest “Reliability” and “Assurance” have scores score of 5) is low, the gap score from 0.5 to 1 is higher than -0.8 (- 0.85, -0.84 and -0.82 acceptable, from 1 to 1.5 is rather high, from respectively), whereas the other two 1.5 to 2 is high, over 2 is too high (the service “Tangibles” and “Empathy” have scores lower quality is performed poorly). than -0.8 (-0.76, and -0.79 respectively). All are in the range of acceptable. Tanglbles 0.8 Empathy 0.75 Reliability 0.7 Perception - Expectation Assurance Responsiveness Figure 1. Gaps between perception and expectation on dimension Trang 37
8. TẠP CHÍ PHÁT TRIỂN KH&CN, TẬP 13, SỐ Q1 - 2010 The radar chart in Figure 1 shows us the Responsiveness, Assurance and Empathy at gaps between perception and expectation on upper high of the acceptable range, so all are dimensions in general. From that Figure, it is needed to be improved down to low range, easy to see that the customers evaluate the especially in the health care services, where the service quality of Bình Phước hospital almost service quality is at high level of importance. the same throughout the dimensions. They see The details of each dimension are shown in the all dimensions- Tangibles, Reliability, following figures: -0.76 Tangibles 4.455 3.695 -0.77 E4 4.49 3.72 P - E -0.51 E3 4.42 E 3.91 P -1.05 E2 4.51 3.46 -0.71 E1 4.4 3.69 -2-1012345 Figure 2. Tangibles gap From Figure 2, we can recognize that E3 always clean, hygiene” get a high gap sore of - “Hospital staff will be neat in appearance” 1.05. That means Bình Phước hospital may contributes not much in the Tangibles gap have enough infrastructure but it is not visually score (-0.51), but E1 “Doctors/Nurses use up-to appealing, and it is a little far away from date equipment for treatment” (-0.71), E4 customer’s expectation, especially in terms of “Hospital has clear and informative guiding sanitary. boards” (-0.77), whereas E2 “Hospital is Trang 37