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Introduction
Because of increasing competition among service providers and more demanding patients, service quality has become a watchword for healthcare service providers but as yet has proven difficult to measure. Service quality has been directly linked to repeat sales, positive word-of-mouth and recommendation. Consumer satisfaction is directly linked to service quality thus perceived quality, patient satisfaction and behavioral intentions are concepts of foremost importance to healthcare marketers (Ross et al., 1987; Joby, 1992; Paul, 2003).
Although marketers have thoroughly described and measured the concept of quality for tangible goods, a consensus for healthcare organizations, regarding the accurate measurement of service quality as perceived by patients, has yet to be reached. To this day for the healthcare service market, there is a need for a healthcare service quality scale that takes into consideration a complete coverage of the dimensions that consumers use in evaluating healthcare service quality.
Healthcare service quality measurement needs to incorporate all dimensions of value to patients through a measurable scale that marketers can use to evaluate consumer expectations and perceptions from the healthcare service providers. Some authors used simple questionnaires fitted for their departments, others used the widely tried and tested SERVQUAL and other yet accepted the critique of the gap school and opted for performance-based measurement. This research is working toward developing a unique and comprehensive measurable scale for use in healthcare through which healthcare providers can measure service quality in their organizations.
As a result of the current research, the best method for healthcare service quality measures among the eight alternative methods of service quality measurement scales (SERVQUAL weighted and un-weighted vs SERVPERF weighted and un-weighted) as well as the usage of an additive or interactive methodology was determined.
Theory
Consumer satisfaction and service quality literature
Many researchers have worked on service quality, producing considerable findings and making real progress concerning its measurement (Zeithaml et al., 1988; Gronroos, 1984). There are two main bodies of research prominent in the relevant literature: the Nordic School (Gronroos, 1983, 1984) and the “Gap Analysis School” (Parasuraman et al., 1985). Numerous other researchers have built upon their work. Powerful findings and critiques have emerged to oppose the usefulness of existing satisfaction measurement techniques (Peterson and Wilson, 1992; Carman, 1990; Cronin and...