Impact of waiting on the perception of service quality in nuclear medicine

Background This is the first study examining the link between waiting and various dimensions of perceived service quality in nuclear medicine. Methods We tested the impact of selected waiting experience variables on the evaluation of service quality, measured using the Servqual tool, of 406 patients in nuclear medicine, with objective and subjective waiting times as co-variates. The sequence of events in service delivery in nuclear medicine (waiting time before injection, waiting time before scanning and total waiting time) is taken into account. Results Patients underestimated the waiting time before injection and the total waiting time, while overestimated the waiting time before scanning. Our results show that the total subjective waiting time has more impact on the reliability dimension (R-2 adj=0.148) than on the other service quality dimensions of Servqual. Providing information about the reasons for delay had a significant main effect on the perception of reliability (F=9.64, P=0.02). Conclusions The study stresses the importance of explaining the causes for delay to increase patients' perceptions of reliability of the nuclear medicine department and contains several findings that should assist service managers to formulate more effective waiting perception strategies. Nucl Med Commun 26:541-547 (c) 2005 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.