ASSESSMENT OF SERVICE QUALITY OF OUTPATIENTS IN GAMBELA HOSPITAL, GAMBELA REGIONAL STATE, ETHIOPIA

Abstract

The interaction between patients and healthcare providers is critical as it influences patients’ satisfaction. Knowing satisfaction level of patients is important to improve quality of services. The objective of this study is to assess service quality of outpatients’ in Gambela Hospital, Gambela Regional State, Ethiopia. Gambela Hospital, serving a population of about 690,000 people, is the only one in the region. This is descriptive research with cross sectional design. Structured questionnaire was employed and data was collected from 15 June to 14 July 2015 using SERVQUAL model. Face to face exit interview technique was used from 433 patients/clients on five dimensions of service quality indicators: responsiveness, assurance, empathy, tangibility, and reliability. According to this study finding, there was more expectation than the actual service delivery (perceived quality) in the entire five dimensions of service quality measures. Gap analysis indicated statistically significant association between service quality dimensions and patients satisfaction (P<0.05). The analysis showed that patients were not satisfied with the services provided. In the correlation analysis between quality dimensions, all variables were positively correlated. In the same vein, correlation analysis between demographic variables and service quality dimensions indicated that educational status was strongly associated with reliability, empathy and tangibility. This study showed the presence of clear evidence about existence of poor quality of services in Gambela Hospital as shown by the gap analysis. Considering this research findings, there is a need for stakeholders to design high impact strategic interventions and allocation of more resources. Moreover, health care providers in the hospital and the RHB need to design a strategy to capture service quality feedback mechanisms for clients/patients. As this research is client centered, other descriptive and analytical researches focusing on other quality aspects on a wider scale need to be conducted.