Service quality has been defined as the outcome of an evaluation process where the consumer compares his expectations with the service he has received or the difference between expected service and perceived service. In today's increasing competitive atmosphere providing service quality is important for any service industry. Here health care services have been studied as they have a distinct position amongst other services due to highly involving and risky nature of services and the general lack of expertise possessed by consumers. For comparative purposes, five service quality dimensions were used i.e. tangibility, reliability, assurance, responsiveness and empathy. The 22 items SERVQUAL scale based on gap model proposed by Parasuraman, Zeithmal and Berry was used. In this study a sample size of 100 was taken using quota sampling. Gap analysis was applied to find the gaps between expected and performed service in private hospitals of NCR and t-test was applied using SPSS to find difference between male and female perception and expectation. It was found that maximum gaps existed in dimensions of reliability and empathy. Also it was seen that though the males and females differed in their perception about service quality of hospitals they had similar views regarding expectations.
Gap analysis, Health care services, Private hospitals, Service quality, SERVQUAL
