Patient’s perceptions about the service quality of public hospitals located at District Kohat

Objective: to determine patients’ perception regarding service and quality of healthcare at public-sector institutions. methods: the descriptive quantitative study was conducted in kohat district,pakistan,between july and december 2014,and focussed on 30 variables to assess the participants’ perceptions of the actual healthcare service quality delivered. servqual instrument was used tomeasure the reliability and cronbach alpha was calculated tomeasure the reliability and validity of the instrument. results: a total of 200 questionnaires were distributed and 157(78.5%) were received back fully filled. of them,105(67%) were men and 52(33%) were women.the mean value of assurance parameter was 3.05±0.88,indicating trust in public hospitals was high as they had experienced and capable doctors. on the other hand,the lowestmean value of 2.61±0.84 was for empathy,highlighting the fact that public hospitals lacked the ability to handle patients’ problem properly,services were not offered in time and they were short of staff. conclusion: public hospitals were largely seen as failing to deliver quality service. © 2016,pakistan medical association. all rights reserved.