[The perceived quality of service at a family planning clinic: a marketing focus].

OBJECTIVE

To measure the perceived quality of service at a Family Planning Clinic (FPC) in Burriana (Castellón), taking as reference the empirical studies developed in commercial marketing.

DESIGN

A descriptive study based on a survey using a questionnaire adapted from the SERVQUAL and SERVPERF ones, then a multivariant analysis of the data.

SETTING

Burriana Family Planning Clinic, Castellón.

PARTICIPANTS

183 women were interviewed after being attended, of whom 155 (85%) filled out the questionnaire correctly.

MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS

The overall quality of service is highly valued (6.1 out of 7 points). Six factors which explained 63.3% of the total variance were identified: high personal attention, little bureaucracy, modern installations and equipment, professionalism and competence of staff, accessibility, reputation and layout. It was also found that the Cronbach alpha coefficients were not acceptable in three factors.

CONCLUSIONS

off Marketing proposes that the quality of health service provision must be measured from the user's point of view, i.e. the important question is the perceived quality. Research is still at an experimental stage and the two measuring tools (SERVQUAL and SERVPERF) are still under discussion. The conclusion is that marketing can be adapted perfectly to the needs of health provision, although a line of research to design the appropriate method for measuring the quality of any health service needs to be followed.