THE COMPARISON OF DIFFERENCES BETWEEN SERVICE PROVIDERS AND CUSTOMERS’ (PATIENTS’) VIEWS ON THEIR EXPECTATIONS, AN EXPERIMENT IN HEALTH SECTOR

Abstract

This study aims to determine whether customer (patients) and service providers (dentists) have different views on customers' (patients') expectations from treatment for transitioning to more customer (patient)-centered management. The surveys were conducted with 78 dentists and 481 patients in the offices of a private healthcare facility. The surveys asked participants to make two different assessments. One was to assign importance scores to the criteria, and the other was to rank the criteria by importance. Both ratings were considered in a way that supported each other. Patients strongly and significantly assigned higher importance to three criteria than physicians. These were ratings of treatment cost, minimal wait time, and rapid treatment and outpatient care. Compared to previous studies, measurements were made through two different assessments and analyses based on more criteria. Patients were found to give higher importance to three aspects than physicians: assessing the cost of treatment (care), minimal wait time and rapid intervention, and outpatient care.