Hospital service quality preferences among culture diversity

Abstract

This study proposes a new methodology to analyse hospital service quality. The new methodology was used at the largest private international hospital in Thailand. To understand differences in the perceived service quality among patients from different nationalities (Japan, Myanmar, Arabic States, and Thailand), a comparative analysis was conducted. An integration of a modified SERVQUAL scale and the Kano model was used to categorise and prioritise the hospital's service quality attributes. Analysis of variance was applied to differentiate market segmentation based on nationality, and a proposed importance analysis grid for improvement was applied to prioritise areas of improvements. The quality attributes showed a significantly different level among different nationalities. The results obtained by this research can provide important clues to improve the perceived service quality by offering different quality improvement strategies to meet different nationalities' needs.

Keywords:

• hospital service
• quality measurements
• SERVQUAL
• Kano model

Acknowledgements

The earlier version of this paper was presented at the 17th QMOD conference in September, 2013. The authors would like to thank the conference's organisers and participants, especially Professor Jens J. Dahlgaard and Professor Su Mi Dahlgaard-Park for valuable feedback for further improvements.