MEASURING THE EXTENT OF PATIENTS’ SATISFACTION WITH THE QUALITY OF SERVICES OFFERED BY DENTISTS IN IRAQ

This study aims towards measuring the level of patient satisfaction with the dentist’s services, then design a study model which includes six dimension, first five of those dimensions include the quality of service elements which are reliability, assurance, responsiveness, empathy and tangibles, while the sixth dimension measures patient satisfaction. Two kinds of hypotheses were developed; the first included the first six dimensions regarding the study model, while the second regards the existence of a connection between the contents of this model. Designing and development of the questionnaire included 30 questions which have been distributed amongst patients visiting dentists in Baghdad / Iraq, 203 valid answers have been obtained which were liable for statistical analysis and have been analysed for this study. All six hypotheses regarding the first kind were accepted, the statistical analysis showed a positive and incorporeal correlating relationship between all the study model’s contents, this indicates the acceptance of the seventh hypotheses, and that the strongest relationship between the first dimension (reliability) and patient satisfaction is established by the correlation factor, meanwhile the strongest relationship between the study model’s contents was established between the first dimension (reliability) and the second dimension (assurance). The analysis of the dimensions showed that the value of the fifth dimension (tangibles) was the highest with a (3.81) mean value and (16.62) T value, which is relatable as tangibles (equipment, appliances, individuals, the clinic…) have a great influence over patients at a dentist’s clinic.