Abstract
<jats:p>Quality is a priority in healthcare. Its importance has been constantly growing as a consequence of the increasing standardization, the individualization of the approach to the patient and requirements, as well as in the context of the effectiveness of entities and the system. As primary care plays a special role in healthcare systems around the world, its quality and the resulting patient satisfaction are extremely important. An opportunity to determine patients&rsquo; opinions about the services offered are perceived quality and satisfaction studies, the role of which is clearly increasing in the context of recognizing the consumer area of quality issue as an important element of the process of providing healthcare services. The requirements placed on healthcare by the patient, who is in the spotlight, are the result of the impact of various variables. The Internet plays a special role here, primarily enabling access to information. Since its popularization and use in health has been both opportunity and challenge for the entire system, this study is an attempt to assess the quality of primary healthcare services from the patient&rsquo;s perspective in terms of access to online health information. The concept is based on the assumption that satisfaction results from perceived quality, because only this is important from the customer&rsquo;s perspective. The aim of the study is to demonstrate whether patients&rsquo; use of the Internet as a source of health information is significant from the point of view of the perceived quality of primary healthcare services. In principle, activity aimed at obtaining information and knowledge should cause discrepancies between the expected and received service. The study was conducted based on an original adaptation of the Servqual questionnaire among primary healthcare beneficiaries in the West Pomeranian Voivodeship, who use and do not use the Internet. Although the assessments of expected, received and perceived quality differed significantly between the groups, the relationship between perceived quality and Internet use turned out to be weak. It is observable primarily in the area of empathy and among patients who are dissatisfied with the quality of primary healthcare services. As a result of using Internet health information, the low service perceived quality deepens, while the good does not significantly change. Primary health care providers must therefore ensure the improvement of all areas of quality, with particular emphasis on empathy, because knowledge from the Internet shapes the requirements and way of seeing services, and these in turn shape the perceived quality and patient satisfaction.</jats:p>