Role of Soft Skills in Improving the Quality of Healthcare Services: an Analytical Study

The purpose of this study is to explore how the presence of soft skills will be beneficial to increasing service quality in health-care organizations; specifically to look into how six specific soft skills will increase service quality through the use of the SERVQUAL model and are related to the five-dimensions of service quality (tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy) as well as an understanding of the relationship between communication skills, team-work, planning skills, decision making skills, negotiation skills and leadership skills. A descriptive-analytical design was used in this study to test its hypotheses, with primary data collected via a structured questionnaire. The questionnaire was first assessed for reliability and validity before being distributed to a sample of 150 health-care workers from Marjan Hospital in the Babel Health Directorate, Iraq. The study found a significant positive correlation between the application of soft skills and the perceived overall quality of health care services. Employees’ assessments of their perceptions of the quality of service were significantly different among the SERVQUAL dimensions, which indicate the effects of the application of soft skills on service quality aspects differed among the various service quality dimensions of the SERVQUAL model. Findings of the study also provide evidence that developing targeted soft skills is one of the most effective strategies for providing patient-centered care and increasing the operational efficiency of health care organizations. Recommendations for implementing the findings include developing employee awareness of the value of soft skills and establishing training programs specifically designed to develop the specified soft skills so that they can be applied in ways that meet or exceed the standards of service quality in health care organizations.