Statistical determination of service quality gaps in primary health care in Guayas, Ecuador

The present work determines the gaps between expectations and perceptions about the quality of the service that patients and families receive in primary health care (PHC) in Guayas, Ecuador. A descriptive, cross-sectional and non-experimental study was carried out, primarily prospective with respect to expectations and retrospective with respect to perceptions of service quality. For its development, a random sample of 533 users from the northern and southern urban sectors of the city of Guayaquil was determined, who were asked to answer a questionnaire. Their responses were collected using a seven-point scale intended to determine magnitudes of gaps, which were confirmed using the Wilcoxon test. The results reveal a significant gap between women, specifically those over 21 years of age who have studied at the technological and university level, and those who work. In general, the five dimensions of quality present significant gaps, highlighting that the lowest gap occurs when the medical professional listens attentively and treats the patient with kindness. Instead, the largest gap occurs because there are no available or easily accessible times for medical appointments. Finally, the dimension that indicates the gaps that service providers best resolve are the empathy items, recording the smallest deviations; On the contrary, the reliability dimension presents the greatest deviation, thus showing higher degrees of dissatisfaction, in both cases significant.