Quality of Services Provided in the Heart Surgery Departments of the Public and Private Hospitals of Mashhad, Iran, Based on Service Model in 2018

The collection of sufficient data regarding the customer perception of the quality of services can help organizations identify the areas and dimensions that affect the competitive advantage of the organization. Therefore, the present study aimed at evaluating the quality of services provided in the Department of Cardiac Surgery at the state and private hospitals in Mashhad, Iran, based on the SERVUSE model during 2018.

In this descriptive-analytical study, 145 patients hospitalized in the heart surgery departments of three public hospitals and four private hospitals in Mashhad, Iran, were evaluated using the servise questionnaire in 2018. The questionnaire consists of several dimensions, inlcuidng tangibility, reliability, accountability, assurance, empathy, and usability. The validity of the questionnaire was confirmed through content validity, and its reliability was evaluated using Cronbach's alpha coefficient. The data were collected in a field and analyzed in the SPSS software using nonparametric tests at a significant level of 0.05.

In the public hospitals, the greatest gap was attributed to the tangible factors with a score of 0.52, while the lowest gap was related to the empathy domain with a score of 0.06. In addition, the gap between total expectations and perceptions was -0.22. In the private hospitals, the greatest gap with a score of -1.14 was related to empathy. Furthermore, the gap between total expectations and total perceptions was obtained as -0.73. The results of Wilcoxon test showed that the gap and difference were statistically significant between the public and private hospitals (P<0.05).

To reduce the existing qualitative gap, managers need to pay more attention to the improvement of the physical environment of the hospital, utilization of appropriate equipment, enhancement of human resource management, and promotion of organizational motivation and commitment.