An Empirical Study to Improve the Service Quality for Geriatric Patients in a Tertiary Care Hospital Swathi T M1, Khyathi G V2 1Postgraduate Student, Department of Hospital Administration, Ramaiah University of Applied Sciences, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India 2Assistant Professor, Department of Hospital Administration, Faculty of Management and Commerce, Ramaiah University of Applied Sciences, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India Online published on 21 February, 2019. Abstract In this modernizing and technological era, everyone irrespective of any age group prefers good quality care and services. Rapid increase in the geriatric population worldwide as well as in India is expected to increase from 7.6% to 19.1% by 2050. This poses a great challenge for health care industry in order to be prepared for meeting the expectations of elderly patients and provide best care possible. With this background, a cross sectional study was conducted in a 750 bedded tertiary care teaching hospital in Bangalore focusing on improving the quality care for geriatric patients. This study aims at identifying the factors affecting the quality care and methods on improving the service quality for elder patients. The study was conducted for six months from February-July 2017 wherein 250 geriatric inpatients in various wards were assessed using SERVQUAL model. Direct observation and focussed group discussions methods were used to understand the existing facilities and expectations of elder people from the hospital. Based on the key elements obtained from the above methods, questionnaire was formulated in order to study patient's perception with respect to hospital services. The results obtained were analyzed using Descriptive statistics and two way Anova test. The statistical findings indicated that there was high significance among variables i.e., Wards and parameters respectively (1.2E and 3.69E) and the lowest mean obtained was for tangibles (3.74) and empathy (3.67). Based on the results obtained recommendations are given on how to improve the deficiencies and deliver best quality care to elderly patients. Top Keywords Geriatric, Needs, Expectations, Hospitals, Quality Service. Top |