QUALITY OF HEALTHCARE SERVICES IN HOSPITALS OF PAKISTAN: FROM PATIENTS’ PERSPECTIVE

Abstract

Thisstudy is a segment of the series of studiesconducted on the hospitals of Peshawar, Pakistan. The aim of the series of thestudy was an in-depth analysis of the prevailing quality of healthcare servicesin the hospitals and to contribute in filling up any existing gap and tosuggest developments from patients perspective. This part of the study findsthe differences in quality healthcare services in the public and private sectorhospitals of Peshawar from the patients’ perspective. The differences aremeasured based on the determinants of healthcare quality using a modifiedSERVQUAL (Parasuraman et al., 1985, 1988) revealed in the previous parts of theseries (Siddiq, Baloch, & Takrim, 2016).The quality of healthcare was measured based on six dimensions as tangibles(infrastructure), responsiveness, process of healthcare, administrativeprocedures, safety and trustworthiness and empathy. A convenient sample ofpatients was selected (n = 1200) having treatments from the tertiary levelhospitals of Peshawar, Pakistan. The data was analysed and presented usingdescriptive statistics, reliability analysis, correlation and t-test forindependent sample. The study concludes a negligible difference of qualityoffered by the two sectors hospitals in Peshawar and if private sector is doinga bit good but not everyone can afford the cost, whereas patients have notaccess to cost effective value of services in public hospitals. The findingssuggest continuous improvements using participation of patients’ feedback inthe process of strategic developing modern healthcare services with relatedfacilities exclusively in public hospitals in Peshawar. Further, thevalue-added rewards and facilities to healthcare workforce can help to improvetheir responsiveness and empathetic attitude towards patients. Cost andleadership interventions are recommended to be included as an isolateddimension of SERVQUAL instrument to measure the cost effective quality ofhealthcare services in the hospitals having an international standard strategicleadership framework. Similar study is recommended in other cities of Pakistanto develop a homogeneous healthcare system at national level.