Published Paper Details:

This study assesses patient perceptions of service quality in selected public and private hospitals in Raipur using the SERVQUAL model and examines demographic variations across key service quality dimensions. Primary data were collected from 150 OPD patients from two public and two private hospitals. Service quality was measured across Tangibles, Reliability, Responsiveness, Assurance and Empathy. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, independent t-tests, one-way ANOVA and Cronbach's Alpha. Results show that private hospitals scored significantly higher across all SERVQUAL dimensions than public hospitals. Gender differences were not significant, whereas residence (urban vs. rural) influenced all dimensions. Age, education and income also had significant effects on selected service quality domains. The SERVQUAL instrument demonstrated strong internal reliability. Overall, the findings indicate that public hospitals must improve responsiveness, patient communication and infrastructure to reduce service quality gaps and enhance patient satisfaction.