Patients’ perceptions of service quality in China: An investigation using the SERVQUAL model

Background and aimThe doctor–patient relationship has been a major focus of society. Hospitals’ efforts to improve the quality of their medical services have been to reduce the probability of doctor–patient conflicts. In this study, we aimed to determine the gap between expectations and perceptions of service quality according to patients to provide reference data for creating strategies to improve health care quality.MethodsTwenty–seven hospitals in 15 provinces (municipalities directly beneath the central government) were selected for our survey; we sent out 1,589 questionnaires, of which 1,520 were collected (response rate 95.65%) and 1,303 were valid (85.72% effective recovery rate). Paired t-tests were used to analyze whether there were significant differences between patients' expectations and perceived service quality. A binary logistic regression analysis was used to determine whether there were significant differences in the gap between expectation and perception of service quality according to patients' demographic characteristics.ResultsThere was a significant difference between the expected and perceived service quality (p ConclusionsAccording to the study results, the quality of health care services as perceived by patients was lower than expected. Hospitals should make adjustments according to the actual situation and should strive to constantly improve the quality of medical services for patients.

研究背景与研究目的：医患关系始终是社会关注的核心议题。医院提升医疗服务质量的核心目标之一，即为降低医患冲突的发生概率。本研究旨在明确患者对医疗服务质量的期望与感知之间的差距，为制定医疗服务质量优化策略提供参考依据。
研究方法：本研究选取全国15个省份（含直辖市）的27家医院开展调查；共计发放问卷1589份，回收问卷1520份，回收率为95.65%，其中有效问卷1303份，有效回收率为85.72%。采用配对t检验分析患者对医疗服务质量的期望与感知是否存在显著差异；采用二元logistic回归分析，探究患者人口学特征是否会对服务质量的期望-感知差距产生显著影响。
研究结果：患者对医疗服务质量的预期与感知水平之间存在显著差异（原文未标注具体p值）。
研究结论：本研究结果显示，患者感知到的医疗服务质量显著低于其预期水平。医疗机构应结合实际情况开展针对性调整，持续致力于提升面向患者的医疗服务质量。