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Prioritizing Factors Affecting Health Service Quality using Integrated Fuzzy DEMATEL and ANP: A Case of Iran
Abstract
Background:
Quality of services is one of the important factors affecting the success of service organizations. However, due to limited resources, organizations should identify the most important dimensions of service quality and take some measures to improve them.
Objective:
To identify and prioritize the factors affecting service quality from the viewpoints of all health care stakeholders in the teaching hospitals and the headquarters affiliated to Shiraz University of Medical Sciences.
Methods:
This is an applied, cross-sectional and descriptive-analytical study conducted in the teaching hospitals and the headquarters affiliated to Shiraz University of Medical Sciences. The study population consisted of all health care stakeholders, including patients, patients' families and relatives, general population, health care policymakers and managers, and health service providers such as matrons and supervisors. Six people of each studied stakeholder group were selected as the study sample using a purposive sampling method (n=30). A pair-wise comparison matrix designed based on the SERVQUAL dimensions was used for making pair-wise comparisons and collecting the required data. The collected pair-wise comparison data were analyzed through Fuzzy DEMATEL and ANP techniques using Super Decision 2.2 and Excel 2007.
Results:
The results showed that Access (NW=0.39018) and Tangibility (NW=0.05873) had the highest and lowest priorities.
Conclusion:
According to the results of the present study and from the studied health care stakeholders' viewpoint, access to care was the most affecting and most important dimension to be improved. Therefore, in order to improve patients' access to the health care services, some suggestions can be made such as providing appropriate facilities for patients' families and relatives, offering special discounts to the poor, providing easier access to the emergency entrance, providing parking and accommodation for patients and their relatives, employing and using the appropriate number of staff, and delivering 24-hour and high-quality health care services.
