In times of acute financial crisis, the EU member states have responded with public administration reforms pointing out for more efficient organisational models regarding the provision of public services, mainly based on a... [ view full abstract ]
In times of acute financial crisis, the EU member states have responded with public administration reforms pointing out for more efficient organisational models regarding the provision of public services, mainly based on a consumer logic. The health sector is no different, becoming crucial to show that hospital services are ‘consumer-focused’ and aim at providing the best possible medical care to their ‘clients’ (Pakdil and Harwood, 2005). As such, the importance of assessing patient’s satisfaction with the quality of the services provided has been extensively recognized, being assumed that higher levels of service quality lead to higher levels of ‘consumer’ satisfaction (Pollack, 2008). In fact, the literature argues that the quality of services can be measured by determining the difference between the patients’ expectations and their perceptions of the service (Pakdil and Harwood, 2005).
In Portugal, the increased pressure to reduce expenditures led to health service reforms, such as the merging or closing of healthcare providers and the increase of patient’s fees. Although the government discourse focuses on the idea of an improvement of care quality, these reforms have generated huge public discontent (Santinha, 2016). To date, however, few studies have analysed the quality of health services in Portugal by assessing patient’s satisfaction using SERVQUAL. Moreover, the scarce existing studies, either focus on healthcare per se (e.g. Quintela et al., 2011) or just make general observations on the level of satisfaction (e.g. Neves, 2008).
Given the above, the aim of this paper is to discuss the quality of health services in a Portuguese hospital by assessing the level of patient’s satisfaction, according to gender, age and medical specialty units, using SERVQUAL.
In order to accomplish the aforementioned aim, an exploratory study was conducted, using a case study design. One of the major hospital complexes in the North of Portugal – Centro Hospitalar Gaia/Espinho (CHVNG/E) – was chosen. Mixed methods were used to collect data. First, twelve interviews were conducted to internal directors and healthcare professionals, to assess these stakeholders’ perceptions concerning the last satisfaction survey. Second, given that the results of the interviews showed some dissatisfaction with the existing survey, a new questionnaire, based on SERVQUAL, was designed and delivered to 154 hospital patients.
Results indicate that perceived health care service performance generally falls short of expectations except in the physical elements of service quality ('Tangibility'), as opposed to 'Empathy' and 'Guarantee', which are the ones patients are less satisfied with. Data also showed that the patients who are more satisfied are females, patients over 65 years old and those who attended the specialty Anesthesiology. The least satisfied are males, patients aged between 18 and 34 years old, and those who attended the specialty Woman and Children.
The next step of the research will be to discuss the questionnaire and these results with the stakeholders interviewed in the first phase. It is believed that this instrument can be a useful tool for hospital management and policy making.
Given the research topic, it is believed it can be presented at panel E3.
E3 - Health Care Management Reforms – Public Policy, Management and Accountability
