QUALITY OF SERVICES IN REHABILITATION CENTERS FROM THE PATIENTS' PERSPECTIVE, USING THE IMPORTANCEPERFORMANCE ANALYSIS IN AHVAZ, 2015

Quality of service is a key factor in the success of health care organizations, including the rehabilitation centers. Nowadays, rehabilitation centers are faced with many challenges in the quality of service and there are many differences between patients' expectations and perceptions of the service quality received at these centers. So, this study aimed to determine the quality of services in rehabilitation centers from the patients' perspective in Ahvaz using the importance - performance analysis (IPA). In this analytical-descriptive study, the study population was all patients who referred to the five selected rehabilitation centers in Ahvaz in 2015. In this study, 110 patients were selected as samples by a random sampling method. Using a standard 22- item SERVQUAL questionnaire, the quality of service provided in the centers in 5 dimensions of two parts "importance" and "performance was investigated. Data were analyzed using the SPSS and Excel software. All dimensions of service quality in the centers studied, were in the first area of the importance- performance matrix, namely at optimal levels. A significant difference was seen between scores of the importance and performance of the dimensions of the quality of service at the centers studied (p=0. 001). The highest (-0.75) and the lowest (-0.49) gap was estimated for the dimensions of "tangibility" and "empathy", respectively. Services offered in any of the dimensions were not beyond the expectations of clients and still there is much possibility for improving the process. Keywords: Quality of service; Importance-Performance Analysis (IPA); Rehabilitation centers