The Effect of Public Healthcare Service Quality on Residents’ Satisfaction in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the Case of Ajman Emirate

Abstract

The quality of healthcare services is becoming a major concern in all countries, through improving performance to maximize the population health, effectively and efficiently, by doing the right thing, at the right time, in the right way, for the right person and having the best possible results, through well-managed hospitals and clinics. The purpose of this paper is to identify and measure Ajman residents’ satisfaction on healthcare service, using data of a sample of 1035 households, randomly selected from a total of 95,531 households, who were permanently residing in the Emirate of Ajman and having prior experience in availing any healthcare service. Data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 22 and AMOS version 22. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) analysis showed an acceptable model fit used to measure residents’ satisfaction. Findings showed that in the government sector only reliability and empathy correlated positively with healthcare service quality, which also had a strong, positive correlation with residents’ satisfaction, while tangible, assurance and responsiveness were not sufficiently correlated to healthcare service quality. On the other hand, for private sector, except for responsiveness and tangible dimensions, reliability, assurance, and empathy correlated positively with healthcare service quality, which also had a strong, positive correlation with residents’ satisfaction. This study used healthcare service quality dimensions, namely, tangible, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy, to determine the residents’ satisfaction within the public hospitals and to provide an empirical contribution to understanding the factors associated with public satisfaction and healthcare systems. According to the survey results, Ajman residents were satisfied 82% on Quality Dimension, 77% on Empathy Dimension, 80% on both Assurance and responsiveness Dimensions, 89% on Reliability Dimension and 88% on Tangible Dimension. Moreover, Statistical analysis revealed that, each of Tangible Dimension, Healthcare Service Quality Dimension and Empathy Dimension, is positively correlated with Healthcare Service Quality. Likewise, Healthcare Service Quality, is also positively correlated with residents’ satisfaction. But Reliability, Responsiveness, and Assurance Dimensions, are not positively correlated with Healthcare Service Quality.