COMPARISON OF SERVICE QUALITY BETWEEN PUBLIC & PRIVATE HOSPITALS: EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE FROM SAUDI ARABIA

Saudi Arabia is rapidly changing especially the health sector is making reforms to enhance service quality of the hospitals. This study aimed to investigate difference in service quality rendered by public and private hospitals in Qassim region of Saudi Arabia. This is a cross-sectional study. Quantitative research design was adopted. Primary data was collected. Non-probability convenience sampling technique was used to select the sample. Data was analyzed in SPSS. Frequency, percentage, independent sample t-test were used to analyze data. In order to check reliability and validity of the questionnaire, the Cronbach alpha and factor loadings were checked. The findings revealed that questionnaire was found reliable and valid as Cronbach alpha and loadings met threshold. Moreover, significant difference is found in service quality of public and private hospitals. The patients are found more satisfied from public hospitals service quality as compared to private hospitals in Qassim region. Policy makers can take benefits from findings of current study. Enhancing service quality would help hospitals to get competitive advantage. Moreover, future studies may use big sample size and can conduct comparative study using SERVQUAL and SERVPERF model.