Healthcare Service Quality Gaps During Covid-19 Pandemic: Secondary Analysis From Patient Satisfaction Surveys

• Main Author: Sharon Linus Lojikip,
• Format: Thesis
• Published: 2022
• Subjects: LC5201 Education extension. Adult education. Continuing education
• Online Access: http://library.oum.edu.my/repository/1542/

Service quality is one of the leading performance dimensions for organisational efficieny. In the healthcare industry, service quality is a major determinant for patient satisfaction. Maintaining patient satisfaction is critical to achieving excellent clinical outcomes in any patients. The COVID-19 pandemic, has disrupted the healthcare system and impacted the healthcare service quality delivery. This study investigated the healthcare service quality during the pandemic, by performing secondary analysis on readily available SERVQUAL datasets obtained during the pandemic through routine patient satisfaction surveys, in a tertiary healthcare centre that manages severe COVID-19 cases. This study discovered that significant service quality gaps existed in all quality dimensions at the inpatient setting during the pandemic, with Tangible service quality being the most negatively impacted. During the pandemic, hospitalised patients also significantly expected for Assurance and Outcome service quality dimensions. When IPA approach was applied to the datasets, service quality items from the Tangible, Reliability, and Responsiveness dimensions were identified as the priority areas for quality improvement during a pandemic. This research could help healthcare managers effectively direct their resources when launching quality improvement intervention. Finally, with these findings, sustainable healthcare system that can withstand difficult and challenging crises can be properly planned to maintain satisfactory service quality in the Malaysian hospitals.