Measuring service quality at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center

Evaluates the service quality of four clinics at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center using a questionnaire methodology. The SERVQUAL instrument was administered to patients of the Medical Breast, Leukemia, Medical Gastroenterology and Bone Marrow Aspiration clinics. Results show that, according to the service gap methodology of comparing expectations and perceptions, across all four clinics the issues of billing accuracy and waiting times are deemed by patients as significant problems. In comparing the individual clinics, the Medical Gastroenterology and Leukemia clinics are best performers and the Medical Breast clinic is the worst. However, these differences in performance are due to differences in patients' expectations of service quality, rather than differences in perceptions. Concludes that customer expectations can have a strong impact on a firm's evaluation of its service quality.