Correspondence: Constantinos-Vasilios Priporas, 6, Vlachava Str. Thessaloniki 54634 Greece. Tel: +30 6974908720; Fax: +30 2310252976; e-mail: cpriporas@gmail.com

¹is affiliated with the University of Macedonia, Department of Marketing & Operations Management, Edessa, Greece and The Greek Open University, Greece. He holds a BSBA in marketing from Drexel University (USA), an MBA in marketing and management from Cleveland State University (USA) and a PhD in marketing from University of Newcastle Upon Tyne (UK). He has published in several international academic journals.

²is a health economist. She holds a BA in Economics from University of Athens (Greece), an MSc in Healthcare Services Management from University of Athens (Greece) and a PhD in Quality Assurance in Hospitals from University of Athens (Greece). She has published in several journals and she is an author of a book regarding the procedures in hospitals.

³is Associate Professor of Marketing at Educational Technological Institute of Kavala (TEI of Kavala), Department of Business Administration and she is affiliated with the Greek Open University, Greece. She holds a PhD in Marketing from Aristotle's University of Thessaloniki and a BSc in Agricultural Marketing from Aristotle's University of Thessaloniki. She has published in several international academic journals.

Received 1 September 2008; Revised 1 September 2008.

Abstract

The paper aims to assess the quality of Greek hospitals by focusing on patients' perceptions. Hospitals' performance was measured using the patient satisfaction survey approach. A structured questionnaire was used and seven hospitals were included in the study. In total, 225 patients were asked to report their judgments on their experience of service quality. Results illustrated that educational status, the type of insurance patients had and the emergent admission significantly affect perceptions of satisfaction. Moreover, males and young people tended to rate satisfaction a little higher than females and older people.