Client perception of service quality at the outpatient clinics of a General hospital in Lagos, Nigeria

Abstract

Introduction: service quality assessments have assumed increasing importance in the last two  decades. They are useful in identifying gaps in services been provided with the ultimate aim of guaranteeing quality assurance. The objective of this study was to assess the client perception of service quality at the outpatient clinics of Randle General hospital, Lagos.

Methods: a descriptive cross sectional study was conducted from March to May 2013. A multistage  sampling technique was used to select respondents and data was collected with the aid of modified  SERVQUAL questionnaires. The data was analysed with aid of EPI-INFO 2002 and statistical significance was set at a P value 0.05 for statistical significance.

Results: total of 400 respondents were interviewed. The mean age was 40 years with a standard  deviation of 15.2 yrs. The highest mean score of 4.35 out of a possible maximum of 5 was recorded in assurance domain while the lowest mean score of 4.00 was recorded in the responsiveness domain. The overall mean score of all the domains was 4.20 with standard deviation of 0.51. Overall majority (80.8%) of respondents rated the overall service quality as good/ very good. After linear regression, the assurance domain was the most important predictor of the overall perceived service quality (p< 0.001).

Conclusion: the overall perceived service quality was good. The major deficiencies were in the  responsiveness domain and especially the waiting time. The hospital management should implement measures to improve the responsiveness of services by ensuring prompt delivery of services.

Key words: Client perception, service quality, outpatient clinics