DELIVERY OF PUBLIC HEALTH CARE SERVICES: ASSESSING CUSTOMER SATISFACTION USING SERVQUAL APPROACH

ABSTRACT Hospital is an important part of any health care system; they provide-Curative care, Transfer knowledge, Work as referral for patients. To achieve service excellence, hospitals require Continuous efforts to improve quality of the service delivery system. The main purpose of this study is to assess the internal revenue generation versus the activities that jeopardize effective execution of quality service delivery and satisfaction of customers in Arba Minch General Hospitals of SNNPR (South Nation Nationality People Region), Arba Minch town. The public health sector in Ethiopia is recently encountering number of problems with poor customer care and poor quality service, negative attitude and behaviors of health care workers, and intense competition from the private healthcare institutions, thus greatly affect its corporate image. Due to poor customer care and satisfaction in government hospitals, it failed to attract healthcare customers. In addition, the government hospitals health workers poor attention, negative attitudes and behaviors towards their clients/patients, intense competition between public and private health institutions, lack of modern equipments and significant shift of customers from government hospitals to private hospitals which adversely affect the government hospitals revenue and it leads to declining revenue, no quality service delivery for clients/patients, acute financial crunch and failed to modernize government hospitals to satisfying the customers