A Study on Perceived Service Quality in the Indian Rural and Urban Hospitals

Background/Objectives: Hospital service quality is the variation between the patient's perceptions about the services delivered by a healthcare organization and their expectations about healthcare organizations delivering such services. Patient perspective is the ultimate indicator of healthcare service quality as it enables them to judge the performance of the services provided by the hospital. A huge gap exists between the quality of the healthcare services provided by the hospitals in rural and urban areas. Methods/Statistical analysis: The quantitative study was conducted to understand the perceptional differences in the service quality between the urban and rural hospitals. Findings: It was a survey that documented the patient perspective of hospital service quality by measuring various dimensions like healthcare delivery, facilities, financial access to care, diagnostic aspects of care, health personnel conduct and drug availability. The sample consisted of 115 residents, chosen based on convenience, from urban and rural areas. The responses were analyzed using SPSS 20 software. Improvements/Applications: From the findings, it was inferred that there are perceptional differences in the service quality between rural and urban hospitals. Further, perceptional differences exist in the facilities provided between the rural and urban hospitals. Financial and physical access to care widely differ between rural and urban hospitals. Overall, the perception of service quality is higher in the urban hospitals than in the rural hospitals. Thus, study provides insights to the hospital administrators and the managers in enhancing the quality of services, based on the perceptions and needs of the patients.