Evaluation of the client's expectations and perceptions gap about the quality of primary health services in Gorgan health center
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Abstract
Introduction: With human society developments, health systems encounter with new needs that should be met. Considering the fact that customers compare the quality of services with their expectations, we conducted this study to find out the gap between client expectations and perceptions from the quality of primary health services in Gorgan health center. Material and Methods: In this analytical survey, 225 primary health services recipients in Gorgan were studied via stratified random sampling. SERVQUAL questionnaire was used for measuring expectations and perceptions about the quality of services in five dimensions of tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy. Data were analyzed in SPSS, version 16 using descriptive statistics and Wilcoxon test. Results: The client's age ranged between 14-57 years and the females formed 89.7 present of the participants. The difference between expectations and perceptions about the quality of primary health services was statistically significant (P<0.05). We found the maximum gap in reliability dimension (-1.47) and minimum gap in tangibles dimension (-1.11). In 22 items of the questionnaire, the maximum and minimum gaps were found in the staff's belief about the effectiveness of services and staff appearance, respectively. Conclusion: There was a considerable quality gap in all dimensions. Because of the shortage in equipment and resources, recognition of the customer's expectations and perceptions could help managers to improve the quality by revising the organizational processes
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