Service Quality Hospitals in Qatar.

Introduction
The main aim of this group project is to have a hands-on experience of applying marketing research process. The key purpose of the research project is to:

– Work through the Marketing Research (MR) Process
– Apply MR concepts to a specific marketing issue
– Gain experience in data analysis.
– Write a marketing research report.

Project Description
On 3rd April 2011, under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani, Qatar’s National Health Strategy (QNHS) was officially launched. This five-year healthcare plan specifically stressed on provision of patient-centered world class healthcare services to meet the existing and future needs of the consumers. The key question that needs to be addressed is the customer (patient) view of services in hospitals in Qatar. This important issue should bring out a number of key service considerations that should be tackled as a part of consumer driven service strategy in hospitals.

As a marketing researcher, you will focus on in-patients (i.e. patients who stay in a hospital for more than one day). The prime project objective will be to evaluate the satisfaction level of patients (customers) who received healthcare service in a hospital. The research project should develop a satisfaction profile of a customer (patient) that is reflective of whether or not customer’s main needs and expectations were met.

The research project (as a minimum) should cover the following areas related to customer (patient) care:

1. Demographics (identify different types of customers by building their profile)
2. Different types of healthcare services on offer
3. Assessment of service provider’s clinical performance (i.e. performance of doctors and nurses)
4. Assessment of service provider’s non-clinical performance (i.e. performance of administrative staff including the reception and the discharging department)
5. Quality of communication between service provider and customers
6. Assessment of accommodation quality
7. Assessment of catering quality
8. Assessment of non-medical facilities (such as shops, library, TV room etc. provided by the hospital)
9. Assessment of parking facility

You will design a questionnaire-based survey that should be conducted remotely (i.e. using an online platform). An important area of investigation should be how COVID19 impacted the nature and quality of the provided services. Students should look into the COVID19 related changes (and how they were addressed) within the areas of customer communication, provision of clinical and non-clinical services, patient accommodation, catering, recreation facilities and parking facility.

A minimum of 30 questionnaires should be completed. For data analysis, you will be expected to perform, at the minimum, descriptive analyses that should include percentages, averages and standard deviations. Marks will be deducted if you did not present the data in a table or a graph (i.e. pie chart or a bar graph) form. You will be penalized if you presented data in the text form or repeated data presentation in different formats.

The research report should consist of the following sections:
A. Introduction
Title page: Title of the project, names of group members and the course title.

Table of contents: Sections of the report with page numbers

Background of the project that familiarizes the reader to the issue under investigation.

Summary: Half a page summary should include key research objectives, major research findings, important conclusions and pertinent recommendations.

Research questions: This section should outline the key questions covered in the research.

B. Research design
(i) Discuss the logic behind your choice of data collection channel (i.e. why a particular Internet questionnaire distribution platform was selected).

(ii) Describe the sampling strategy in terms of who was part of the sample and how were the potential respondents accessed. Your sample should consist of individual who spent a night or more in a Qatari hospital.

(iii) Explain the research questionnaire development process.

C. Data Collection
Explain the data collection process. This should include how were the respondents motivated to take part in the research?

D. Data Analysis
Explain the data analysis techniques that were used.

E. Results
Strictly, tables, graphs and/or charts should be used to present the results.

F. Discussion
After careful analyses of the data, suggest what results were implying about the service quality and customer satisfaction. In particular, clearly explain the impact of COVID19 on customer service quality. Especially, highlight the changes (i.e. improvements and transformations) that were made to deal with COVID19 effects.

G. Recommendations
Based on the discussion of the results, present your recommendations for service quality improvements. Your recommendations must be realistic, practical and actionable. You can present two or three recommendations but they must be SMART (i.e. Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time bound).

H. Appendices
This section MUST include printed copies of the completed online questionnaires, printouts of the statistical analysis and any references (if used).

It should be typed with one inch margins, single line space and using Ariel text type. Professional report writing approach should be adopted where report document is properly structured and clearly sectioned.

Service Quality Hospitals in Qatar.

APA

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