Measuring the perception of quality management primary healthcare services through SERVQUAL model

Abstract

The quality of healthcare is more difficult to identify than other services because it is the clients themselves and their quality of life that gets evaluated (Eiriz & Figueiredu, 2005). The main aim of this study is to investigate people’s perceptions and expectations regarding the quality of services in primary health care (PHC) in Kosovo. A national level survey provides baseline findings intuitively understandable to policymakers on the expectations — perceptions of the quality of services at the PHC level and identifying the quality gap between the expectations and perceptions in all dimensions of different facilities. This comparative test will show the differences between the level of quality services provided by each PHC provider in Kosovo. This research seeks to improve the access and the quality of the priority services at PHC, including maternal and child health (MCH) and non-communicable disease (NCD). This research showed that at the national level the patients have higher expectations toward PHC services. Whereas, in specific, this study showed that there is a significant gap in expected and perceived services of the PHC system between different ethnic patients and different levels of citizen education. Therefore, the result of this study will contribute to enhancing the sustainability of the mandatory health insurance reform and raise the alarm of relevant institutions to reshape the policy-making in order to improve the population health outcome.