ABSTRACT
Background: the first basic step in formulating any quality improvement program is recognizing consumers' perceptions and expectations of service quality and determining the quality gap, then adopting guidelines to eliminate the gap
Objective: to assess the service quality gap in Kashan district health centers, based on consumers' perceptions and expectations
Methods: a sample of 300 females' health care consumers completed the research questionnaire. The SERVQUAL instrument administrated to assess the quality of services provided by health centers. To analyze data, descriptive and analytic statistic and correlation coefficient were applied
Findings: results indicated that there was an overall service quality gap between respondents' perceptions and expectations. The smallest gap was in tangibility dimension and the largest in responsiveness. Age and literacy respectively had direct and indirect significant correlation to quality gap
Conclusion: there was a quality gap in services. Thus, improvements are required across all the five dimensions, namely tangibility, reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy