Service Quality according to Expectation and Perception of the Service Recipients at the Wellness Department, Krabi International Hospital

Abstract

This survey research aimed at: (1) to study personal factors of service recipients at the Wellness Department, (2)to measure the level of expected and perceived of service quality,(3)to compare the differences between service quality as expectation and perception of service recipients and (4) to compare service quality according to expectation and perception towards service quality classified by personal factors of recipients at the Wellness Department, Krabi International Hospital.The study was conducted on service recipients at the Wellness Department, Krabi International Hospital, were 2,116 Thai people aged 16 years and over, average 176 person per month, 259 recipients were purposively selected by time period, during October to November 2018.The data collection was done by means of questionnaire with a reliability of 0.66.The statistics used in data analysis covered the percentage, mean, standard deviation, t-test, and Kruskal-Wallis. The study indicated that (1) most of the samples were female, age betweenb31-40 years old, unmarried, occupation employee/company employee, obtained bachelor's degree and higher education, having income 20,001-40,000 baht per month, the first time of service using, service purpose was an annual health check-up, the person who influences the decision was their working organization, the reason for choosing to use the service was in accordance with the rules of the life insurance company/working agency/ educational institution/or related organization and the service fee payment from welfare benefits of the agency, (2) service recipients’ expectation and perception of overall and every aspects of service quality were at the highest levels, including empathy, reliability, assurance, tangibility and responsiveness; (3) the perception scores were higher than the expectation scores in all aspects with statistically significant at 0.05; and(4) the service recipients with different personal factors regarding monthly income, frequency of service using, types of health check services, and type of service fee payment, showed the differences of service quality expectations; the service recipients with different personal factors regarding monthly income, types of health check services, and influencing people for service decisions found the differences of service quality perception with significant level of 0.05.Management can use information to plan and formulate strategies for marketing operations and proper internal hospital management to increase hospital profits.