Doctors' service orientation in public, private, and foreign hospitals

The purpose of this study is to propose a doctors' service orientation (DSO) scale and uses it to compare the services received in public, private and foreign hospitals in a developing country from the patient's perspective.

The scale was derived from the service quality literature and qualitative research. A questionnaire was designed next. Data were collected from patients who had used the services of doctors in a hospital.

The scale demonstrated appropriate psychometric properties. Two clear patterns emerge from the study results: on 10 out of 12 measures of doctors' service orientation, there was no significant difference in their perceived behaviors between public and private hospitals and foreign doctors were "always" rated significantly higher.

This study focused on one major city because of time and resource constraints. The findings are thus not generalizable to hospitals across the country. Also, because of translation and retranslation issues, the scale ought to be further tested for wider use.

The scale may be used periodically in a comprehensive quality assurance program to exhort doctors to become more service oriented and to improve their performance over time.