EFFECTIVENESS OF SERVICE QUALITY IN MULTISPECIALITY AND SINGLESPECIALITY HOSPITALS-A COMPARATIVE STUDY

EFFECTIVENESS OF SERVICE QUALITY IN MULTISPECIALITY AND SINGLESPECIALITY HOSPITALS-A COMPARATIVE STUDY

The growth in the health care services in the country is primarily driven by the 350 million strong middle class people aspiring for quality health care services. A health care provider is an institution (such as a hospital or clinic) or person (such as a physician, nurse, other health care service provider) that provides preventive, curative, rehabilitative or palliative care services in a systematic way to individuals, families or communities. Improving access, coverage and quality of health services depends on the way, the services are organized and managed, and on the incentives influencing providers and users. The rate of growth of the health care industry in India is moving ahead neck to neck with the pharmaceutical industry and the software industry of the country. Much has been said and done in the health care sector for bringing about improvement. Till date, approximately 12% of the scope offered by the health care industry in India has been tapped. The health care industry in India is reckoned to be the engine of the economy in the years to come. Health care industry in India is worth $17 billion and is anticipated to grow by 13% every year. The health care sector encompasses health care instruments, health care in the retail market, hospitals enrolled to the hospital networks etc. Literature review on Service quality in the hospitals has mostly emphasized on patients perception of the services, the factors responsible for creating customer satisfaction and their intentions to return for future services available. The literature also reveals the gap between customer expectations and customer perception. The findings of the literature identifies the future courses of action to be taken by the hospitals. The loyalty is created in the hospitals by service quality dimensions. The literature so far shows the research in Hospitals; the research gap is that no research has been done in the sectors like Multispeciality Hospitals and Singlespeciality Hospitals. Statement of the problem: Effectiveness of service quality in Multispeciality and Singlespeciality Hospitals- A comparative study The population for the study consists of the patients from both the sectors. The Questionnaire were administered to 315 respondents out of which 292 were the usable data for analysis. The sampling technique adopted was Convenience sampling. The sample was drawn from 6 multispeciality hospitals and 5 single speciality hospitals in Bangalore city only. The Questionnaire consisted of three sections; the first section on the Demographic characteristics, Section 2 consists of the service quality dimensions for expectations and perception. The dimensions were rated on 7 point Likert scale. The third section on the customer loyalty. The patients of the hospitals have rated independently without any bias. The developed questionnaire was found to be very reliable and valid. Conclusion:The present research found that the service quality is high in Multispeciality hospitals when compared to single speciality hospitals. The Reliability dimension is very important when compared to the other dimension. Also the study revealed that price is the very sensitive variable that the customer loyalty depends on the price justification. Hence the research throws light upon the Servqual and the customer loyalty.

.B.L ROOPA

Management Studies