Development of Surgical Functional Service Quality scales for Tertiary Care Hospitals: Consumer’s Perspective

Abstract

Background: Surgical department is the economically viable and resource generation department of a hospital. Its services not only focus to build a long-term image of the hospital but also to generate a positive word of mouth in the community because the consumers have longer hospitalization Objective: This study is aimed to design a scale for measuring functional service quality of surgical department based on service user’s perspective. Methods: This was a mix method research with a cross-sectional study design. Survey questionnaire was used to get primary data from the respondents (patients admitted to wards). Out of 835 self-administered questionnaires, 499 valid responses were received for further data analysis. Simple descriptive, Exploratory Factor Analysis, Confirmatory Factor Analysis were employed using SPSS version 21 and AMOS version 21. Results: The scale identified five constructs that can be used as contributing factors to measure and evaluate surgical department functional service quality. These dimensions include skill, empathy, food, responsiveness and promptness. The model fit values include CFI (0.98), RMSEA (0.055), and GFI (0.96) which show goodness of fit. Conclusion: Though the method of assessment and development of scale is not novel but according to our knowledge based on published literature this study is novel to identify the scale based on service quality dimension in surgical facilities in the developing countries.