Quality assessment of services provided by health centers in Mashhad, Iran: SERVQUAL versus HEALTHQUAL scales

BACKGROUND: Primary health care is the entry point to the health-care system and regarded as an essential step to achieving universal health coverage. The present study aimed at evaluating the quality of health-care services provided in health centers in Mashhad, Iran. METHODS: This was a cross-sectional study implemented among 200 health service users who were referring to four health centers in Mashhad during January to June 2019. The quality of services in health centers was evaluated with the SERVQUAL and HEALTHQUAL models. Data was analyzed by employing paired t-test and independent sample t-test using SPSS version 16 software. The Levene test was used for examining the equality of variance (homogeneity). Significance level of all the tests was considered when p ≤ 0.05. RESULTS: According to the results of SERVQUAL questionnaire, the average scores of health service users’ expectations and perceptions were 4.97 and 3.26, respectively, and the quality gap in the provided services was equal to − 1.7. Based on HEALTHQUAL questionnaire, the average scores of health service users’ perception and expectations were 4.72 and 3.25, respectively, and the quality gap in the provided services was equal to − 1.16. Empathy was the highest quality dimension (− 2.019) based on SERVQUAL model, and efficiency dimension was the highest based on HEALTHQUAL model (− 1.761). CONCLUSIONS: The findings of the current study showed a negative gap between the service users’ expectations and perceptions in both models. Therefore, the results of this study helps the health managers and policymakers to plan effective interventions for improving the provided services emphasizing the dimensions with the wider gaps. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12913-021-06405-4.