Understanding customer expectations of community pharmacy services

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide a framework through which to understand, predict and control factors affecting employee engagement in the public sector in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Design/methodology/approach – The paper examines research conducted in the area of employee engagement and proposes a conceptual framework that can be used by practitioners to engage employees and motivate them toward organizational growth and sustainability. Findings – In line with the literature-based analysis, a framework of employee engagement was developed, illustrating the linkage between leader, team, perceived organizational support and organizational culture that is being mediated by employee motivation. Research limitations/implications – Employee engagement as exemplified in this study is well suited for use in the public sector in the UAE. Further empirical study should be undertaken to ascertain the effect of the proposed framework and hypotheses. Practical implications – The study incorpora...

Competing through employee engagement: a proposed framework

Purpose – The purpose of this research is to develop and compare some determinants of service quality in both the public and private hospitals of Northern Cyprus There is considerable lack of literature with respect to service quality in public and private hospitalsDesign/method/approach – Randomly, 454 respondents, who have recently benefited from hospital services in Famagusta, were selected to answer a modified version of the SERVQUAL Instrument The instrument contained both service expectations and perceptions questionsFindings – This study identifies six factors regarding the service quality as perceived in both public and private Northern Cyprus hospitals These are: empathy, giving priority to the inpatients needs, relationships between staff and patients, professionalism of staff, food and the physical environment Research results revealed that the various expectations of inpatients have not been met in either the public or the private hospitalsResearch implications/limitations – At the micro

Gearing service quality into public and private hospitals in small islands: Empirical evidence from Cyprus

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to investigate hospital service quality and its effect on patient satisfaction and behavioural intention.Design/methodology/approach – A convenience sampling technique was used in this study. A total of 350 questionnaires were distributed and 216 were returned (61.7 per cent response rate).Findings – The results confirm that the five dimensions – admission, medical service, overall service, discharge and social responsibility – are a distinct construct for hospital service quality. Each dimension has a significant relationship with hospital service quality. The findings of this study indicate that the establishment of higher levels of hospital service quality will lead customers to have a high level of satisfaction and behavioural intention.Research limitations/implications – This research examined the concept of hospital service quality, patient satisfaction and behavioural intention from the perspective of patients. However, this study did not explore the perspecti...

Hospital service quality and its effects on patient satisfaction and behavioural intention

Highly competitive market in the private hospital industry has caused increasing pressure on them to provide services with higher quality. The aim of this study was to determine the different dimensions of the service quality in the private hospitals of Iran and evaluating the service quality from the patients' perspective. A cross-sectional study was conducted between October and November 2010 in Tehran, Iran. The study sample was composed of 983 patients randomly selected from 8 private general hospitals. The study questionnaire was the SERVQUAL questionnaire, consisting of 21 items in service quality dimensions. The result of factor analysis revealed 3 factors, explaining 69% of the total variance. The total mean score of patients' expectation and perception was 4.91(SD = 0.2) and 4.02(SD = 0.6), respectively. The highest expectation and perception related to the tangibles dimension and the lowest expectation and perception related to the empathy dimension. The differences between perception and expectation were significant (p < 0.001). There was a significant difference between the expectations scores based on gender, education level, and previous hospitalization in that same hospital. Also, there was a significant difference between the perception scores based on insurance coverage, average length of stay, and patients' health conditions on discharge. The results showed that SERVQUAL is a valid, reliable, and flexible instrument to monitor and measure the quality of the services in private hospitals of Iran. Our findings clarified the importance of creating a strong relationship between patients and the hospital practitioners/personnel and the need for hospital staff to be responsive, credible, and empathetic when dealing with patients.

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Service quality of private hospitals: the Iranian patients' perspective

Healthcare is a highly competitive global industry. People accept to travel to remote parts of the world in order to receive the service quality they hope for. Patients usually prefer to go to private hospitals, hoping to receive high service quality. On the other hand, healthcare organizations operating in the public sector are undergoing pressure from governments and the general public to improve quality and compete effectively with their counterparts in the private sector. This paper compares the service quality rendered by private and public hospitals. A questionnaire based on SERVQUAL is developed and tested for this purpose. This questionnaire is found to have five dimensions; namely, empathy, tangibles, reliability, administrative responsiveness and supporting skills. These dimensions, as well as overall service quality, are compared between private and public hospitals. Finally the implications of the results are highlighted for healthcare managers.

Comparing the quality of private and public hospitals

There are many studies questioning the effectiveness of accounting education at colleges that prepares the students for professional accountancy work. The aim of this paper is to assess the accountancy skills of KIMEP accounting graduates acquired during their study at the college. The research method used in this study is based on a perception survey. As this research seeks to explore the perception of the respondents on accountancy skills, descriptive statistics are used. The findings of the study are discussed under three categories namely technical and functional skills, interpersonal and communication skills, and organisational and business management skills. This study found that KIMEP accounting graduates were equipped with professional ethics (organisational and business management skills), interpersonal and communication skills, auditing skills and information development and distribution skills (technical and functional skills). However, there are certain skills needed to be enhanced.

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What Accountancy Skills Are Acquired at College

Purpose – The Islamic banking sector has been growing rapidly, particularly in the Gulf region The purpose of this paper is to examine major barriers to service quality in Islamic banks in Qatar and the impact of demographic variables on the perceptions of these barriersDesign/methodology/approach – A questionnaire based on the existing literature and particularly on the obstacles outlined by Jabnoun and the constructs influencing service quality gaps found by Parasuraman is developed and distributed to employees of Islamic banks in Qatar Factor analysis is used to determine the dimensions of the questionnaire One‐sample t‐test is then used to determine which of the resulting dimensions are significant barriers to service quality Finally, one‐way ANOVA is used is to determine the impact of demographic variables on the perceptions of the barriersFindings – Factor analysis resulted in four dimensions: three of these dimensions, namely, lack of empowerment, centralization, and lack of transformational 

Barriers to service quality in Islamic banks in Qatar

The purpose of this research is to study the In-patient satisfaction for the services provided in Qatar Orthopedic and sports medicine hospital (ASPITAR). This paper aims at determining the elements of the Inpatient satisfaction, by collecting information through survey, using written questionnaire, and then statistically determining correlation between factors and elements of dissatisfaction. The main factors were determined in the questionnaire are focusing on the following: quality, access, and interpersonal issues. The findings of the study suggest that respondents are satisfied with the services provided and they are getting during their visits to the hospital, however the management can implement Balance scorecard methodology for continuous improvements in the future to measure the satisfaction periodically.

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Patient Satisfaction in Qatar Orthopedic and Sports Medicine Hospital (ASPITAR)

Information technology plays a major role in shaping industries all over the world. Obviously, banks rely heavily on IT in conducting their businesses and spend huge amounts of money on such technology to reduce operation costs and gain competitive advantage over their rivals by offering customers better services through ATM machines, telephone banking and more evidently in the last decade internet banking (IB). Researchers have found that a significant number of customers are either not aware of the IB services or do not trust the IB as a channel to conduct their banking transactions. Researchers also have found that customers may adopt IB technology only if they perceive the technology to be useful. This research paper examines customers' perception of using IB in Qatar. This paper can be a very useful reference for the banking industry to improve the level of IB services and for further future research.

Mohammed Naim Chaker

Papers

Comparing the quality of private and public hospitals

What Accountancy Skills Are Acquired at College

Barriers to service quality in Islamic banks in Qatar

Patient Satisfaction in Qatar Orthopedic and Sports Medicine Hospital (ASPITAR)

Customers' perception of online banking in Qatar