Evaluation of Quality of Healthcare: To What Extent Can We Rely on Patient Expectations and Preferences

Abstract

Consumers today are more aware of the offered alternatives and rising standards of services, thus their expectations have increased markedly. With the pressure of competition and the increasing necessity to deliver to the satisfaction of patients, the elements of looking at the quality issues in healthcare and provider understanding of patients’ preferences and satisfaction attributes have become an absolute necessity. Like any service provider, it is crucial for healthcare providers to constantly determine the factors associated with the satisfaction of patients with the quality of healthcare provided to understand what is valued by the patient, how the quality of care is constructed by the patient and to determine how service improvement can be made and prioritized in a health service with limited resources. Understanding the perception and narrowing the gap between the customer’s expectation and what can actually be provided should be what any organization works to accomplish. Thus, it is logic that the quality of health services be evaluated on the basis of the patients, who are after all the final recipient of the process outcome of the services, since the health service’s product primarily concerns the patients themselves and their families.

Subject