The Quality of the Services offered by the Hospitals in the City of Qalqilya from the Perspective of the Staff and Patients

Abstract

This study aimed to identify the quality level of the actual services

perceived by staff and patients in hospitals operating in the city of

Qalqilya, and to identify differences in their responses depending on the

following variables: hospital, respondent, gender, marital status, age,

educational qualification, and function. The study population consisted

of workers and patients in both Darwish Nazzal governmental hospital,

UNRWA hospital. The sample of the study included 126 staff members

and patients out of 420 people, representing 30% of the population.

The researcher used the descriptive method and SERVPERF scale to

measure the quality of perceived and actual services, the questionnaire

used for the study consisted of 28 items divided into 6 domains: the tangible

physical evidence, reliability, strength of response, safety& trust, empathy,

and the characteristics of the hospital. The tool of the study was constructed

with the help of the literature review and previous studies regarding

this issue. The tool was also tested for validity, reliability and suitability.

The results showed that the responses of the studied sample towards the actual

and perceived quality of services, were high on all fields of study and on the

total score. There were significant differences in the following areas: power

response, safety and trust, and empathy due to the variable of gender in favor

of males. The study provided a set of recommendations such as providing

the requirements of hospitals with modern equipment and providing suitable

training courses for workers in their respective fields in order to improve the

quality of medical services provided.