Measuring patient's satisfaction of healthcare services in the UAE hospitals: Using SERVQUAL

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the quality of healthcare services by investigating the factors affecting patient satisfaction in private and public hospitals in the UAE based on five service quality dimensions of the SERVQUAL namely; tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy. A modified SERVQUAL questionnaire was used to gather the research data. The respondents of the study consisted of 127 patients who have been admitted within the last 6 months prior to the onset of the investigation. The results of the study revealed that the perceived healthcare services in private hospitals and public hospitals do not significantly vary. Although patients were more satisfied with nursing care, the perceived satisfaction of patients with the quality of services provided by physicians and nurses as well as the quality of the hospital environment do not significantly vary in both public and private hospitals. The dimension of assurance was rated the highest while responsiveness was perceived as the least important of the five SERVQUAL dimensions. The five dimensions of the SERVQUAL appeared to be a consistent and reliable scale for measuring healthcare service quality in the United Arab Emirates context. The modified SERVQUAL may be used to contribute in enhancing the quality of healthcare services in UAE and in other similar environments.