Service delivery in the Chal Hospital Tebellong in Lesotho.

Abstract

The healthcare service industry has never been so competitive than it is today (Goddard, 2015). In order to survive, health care facilities must focus on delivering quality to their patients and meeting their expectations. The global concern is to make health care freely accessible and affordable to all people. The purpose of this study was therefore designed to assess the experiences and expectations of both the healthcare workers and patients of Tebellong hospital. The SERVQUAL/RATER model was used as a basis for this in terms of the delivery of quality services. As part of the data collection for the study, a field survey was conducted. Based on the data collected from 66 healthcare workers and patients in the hospital, the results indicate that there is quality service delivery gap. This means that the expectations of both the healthcare workers and patients in regard to the provision of quality services are higher than what was initially perceived. The biggest gap that was discovered is for the construct of tangibles, with which there is an urgent need to improve the 'visible' aspects of the service at the hospital to make them more appealing to the eyes of the community. The results further indicate that the expectations of patients are substantially higher than that of the healthcare workers, which indicates that it is not about how managers and healthcare workers define quality in healthcare but it is about how the patients, the receivers of the services view it. As a result of the findings of the study, it has become evident that Hospitals in general should ensure that patients are always at the heart of what they do. The patient experience should be improved at Tebellong hospital, giving priority number one to the tangibles as per findings.