Scale for Measuring Perceived Service Quality of Public Service in Sri Lanka: With Special Reference to Divisional Secretariats in Gampaha District

AbstractThe most accepted SERVQUAL is heavily applied to measure the service quality of Business to Customer (B2C) profit oriented organizations than for non-profit organizations. Thus this paper describes the development of a 19-item instrument for assessing customer perceptions of service quality in public service with special reference to Divisional Secretariats in Sri Lanka. To do so, both qualitative and quantitative methods were utilized in three fundamental stages recommended by Churchill (1979) and Parasuraman et.al, (1988). In following their footsteps, initially a qualitative research was undertaken in five Divisional Secretariats within Gampaha District through interviews with 50 customers from different backgrounds and affiliations which produced 42-items with eight factors emerged. These 42-items were included in a questionnaire and quantitative study was undertaken with 100 respondents who were current or recent service beneficiaries of Divisional Secretariats within Gampatha District. Ninety five questionnaires were returned and found to be useful, which represents a 92% response rate. More than half (55%) of the respondents were male between the ages of 48-57(35%).To ensure the reliability and validity of the measures of service quality construct, mainly reliability test, split-half reliability and factor analysis, were used. Finally, 41-items were deduced in to 19-items and a new scale was developed to measure the service quality of Divisional Secretariats with 5 dimensions Responsiveness, Communication, Tangible, Empathy and Assurance. Among these responsiveness dimensions could be the least important and the empathy dimension was of most concern to customers. Regarding the limitations of the study in this respect, only the perception items were considered. The sample size was 100 and it was selected only from Gampaha District with the use of judgmental sampling as one of the non- probabilistic sampling techniques. The use of one of the probabilistic techniques would provide the chance of generalizing the results more confidently. As a closing note, further studies with large sample size which covers the all island using this newly developed scale to measure the service quality of Divisional Secretariats and replication studies with other public organizations would be fruitful for further generalizations of the newly developed scale.Keywords: Service Quality, SERVQUAL, Pubic Service, Divisional Secretariat

Body mass index and complications following major gastrointestinal surgery: A prospective, international cohort study and meta-analysis

Aim Previous studies reported conflicting evidence on the effects of obesity on outcomes after gastrointestinal surgery. The aims of this study were to explore the relationship of obesity with major postoperative complications in an international cohort and to present a metaanalysis of all available prospective data. Methods This prospective, multicentre study included adults undergoing both elective and emergency gastrointestinal resection, reversal of stoma or formation of stoma. The primary end-point was 30-day major complications (Clavien–Dindo Grades III–V). A systematic search was undertaken for studies assessing the relationship between obesity and major complications after gastrointestinal surgery. Individual patient meta-analysis was used to analyse pooled results. Results This study included 2519 patients across 127 centres, of whom 560 (22.2%) were obese. Unadjusted major complication rates were lower in obese vs normal weight patients (13.0% vs 16.2%, respectively), but this did not reach statistical significance (P = 0.863) on multivariate analysis for patients having surgery for either malignant or benign conditions. Individual patient meta-analysis demonstrated that obese patients undergoing surgery formalignancy were at increased risk of major complications (OR 2.10, 95% CI 1.49–2.96, P < 0.001), whereas obese patients undergoing surgery for benign indications were at decreased risk (OR 0.59, 95% CI 0.46–0.75, P < 0.001) compared to normal weight patients. Conclusions In our international data, obesity was not found to be associated with major complications following gastrointestinal surgery. Meta-analysis of available prospective data made a novel finding of obesity being associated with different outcomes depending on whether patients were undergoing surgery for benign or malignant disease