Description

ABSTRACT

Background: Dental hospitals share substantial commonalities in their delivery of technical services, monitoring of the non-technical aspects of dental service quality is essential for patient satisfaction. This study aims to measure the service quality gap of patients’ perceptions and expectations in five dimensions at a dental facility in Hyderabad city, India using the SERVQUAL tool. Materials and Methods: This was a cross-sectional and descriptive-analytical study conducted at a super specialty dental facility. The purpose of this research was to investigate patients’ perceptions of dental service quality by measuring patients’ expectations from dental service and perception of actual service provided and to identify areas of dental services that need improvement. Dental patients receiving dental care in multiple visits were selected. The required data were collected using the modified SERVQUAL questionnaire. Descriptive statistics and t-test were used to analyze subjects’ responses. Results: Quality of services provided to patients was significantly lower than their expectations. The highest quality gap was related to the affordability of dental treatment fees (−1.9) and lowest in communication and infection control practices of dental staff (−0.12) respectively. There was a significant difference between the patients’ expectations and their perceptions of service provided concerning all dimensions. Conclusion: This study provides gaps in dental service quality to improve service quality standards effectively. The dental facility management should take steps toward improving the quality of services in all dimensions, especially the affordability of dental treatment, through improving the efficiency of dental services, meticulous costing, and word of mouth referrals. The process of improving quality is continuous and incremental; hence one must not take a big leap forward.

 Keywords: Gap Analysis, Dental service quality, SERVQUAL, Patient satisfaction