Hospital service quality as antecedent of patient satisfaction – a conceptual framework

Author(s):  
Swapnarag Swain ◽  
Nirmal Chandra Kar

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore dimensions of perceived service quality in hospitals and to develop a conceptual framework showing relationship between hospital service quality, patient satisfaction and their behavioural intention. Design/methodology/approach This paper is based on extensive review of existing literature on hospital service quality, patient satisfaction and behavioural intention. Critical analysis of these literature studies has resulted in determining and defining the dimensions of perceived service quality and establishing relationship between hospital service quality, patient satisfaction and behavioural intention. Findings This study has identified six major areas through which patients perceive quality of service in hospitals. These six areas are technical quality, procedural quality, infrastructural quality, interactional quality, personnel quality, social support quality. Further 20 dimensions of hospital service quality are identified under these 6 major areas. These are clinical procedure, quality of outcome, admission, discharge, waiting time, patient safety, billing and price, follow-up, ambience, availability of resources, accessibility, food, staff attitude, personalised attention, information availability, staff competency, trustworthiness, staff diversity, hospital image and social responsibility. The conceptual framework proposes direct relationship between service quality, patient satisfaction and behavioural intention. Originality/value Though many studies have been conducted on hospital service quality, none of them has been able to project all the possible dimensions to measure the same. The “6-Q framework” developed by this study explores all the possible dimensions of perceived service quality in hospitals.

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 504
Author(s):  
Patrícia Moura e Sá ◽  
Maria João Rosa ◽  
Gonçalo Santinha ◽  
Cátia Valente

This paper aims to measure the quality of the services delivered by a court by assessing the satisfaction of court users and service providers, i.e., magistrates and court officials. For that purpose, a case study was carried out and data were collected by means of a questionnaire based on the SERVPERF instrument, in which perceived service quality is measured, considering court users, magistrates, and court officials’ perceptions of post-service performance. One hundred and fifty-eight questionnaires were successfully returned. An in-depth interview was later conducted to the court administrator to gain a richer understanding of the results achieved and ask follow-up questions. Overall, findings revealed that court users, magistrates, and court officials clearly have a positive view of the services provided, although improvement is needed, particularly in the court’s facilities and technological equipment. The current research sheds some light on the potentialities and difficulties of assessing service quality in the judiciary and contributes to the validation of the SERVPERF instrument in this context.


Author(s):  
Rama Krishna Naik Jandavath ◽  
Anand Byram

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of health-care service quality (HCSQ) dimensions on patient satisfaction and behavioural intentions in selected corporate hospitals from South India. Design/methodology/approach Based on Parasuraman et al.’s SERVQUAL variables, the study tried to identify the effects of each variable to patient satisfaction and behavioural intentions. Data were collected through systematic random sampling among 500 in-patients of corporate hospitals with minimum four days stay were considered for the in-patients’ sample. Structural equation modelling technique was used to investigate the effect of HCSQ dimensions on patient satisfaction and behavioural intention. Findings The findings suggest that in addition to “patient satisfaction”, the only HCSQ dimension that directly affects behavioural intention is “empathy”. In addition, “empathy” affects “responsiveness”, “assurance” and “tangibles” which, in turn, have only an indirect effect to behavioural intention through “patient satisfaction”. Research limitations/implications This research investigated the HCSQ dimensions effects on patient satisfaction and behavioural intention from the perspective of patients and corporate hospitals run by the private players. This paper contributes to the body of academic knowledge by shedding more light into the role of HCSQ dimensions, and especially “empathy”, in the intentions for corporate hospital patients. Practical implications An understanding of the direct and indirect effect of HCSQ dimensions on patient satisfaction and behavioural intentions is important to corporate hospital marketing managers because it offers them the opportunity to take certain actions for improving patients’ satisfaction and these actions increase their intention to revisit. Originality/value The paper manages to investigate the effects of HCSQ dimensions on patient satisfaction and behavioural intention, especially in the health-care marketing sector.


2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 478-497 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aygül Turan ◽  
Tuba Bozaykut-Bük

Purpose Through the lens of a total quality management approach, this paper aims to examine the effects of health-care service quality on patient satisfaction, repatronage intention (RI) and positive word-of mouth (PWOM) at a public hospital specialized in women and children’s diseases. The contribution is to measure and compare patient expectations and perceptions related to the public health service quality. Design/methodology/approach A structured questionnaire was distributed to in-patients who stayed at a public training and research hospital for at least three days. To analyze the relationship between variables, multiple regression analysis was used. To test the difference between expected and perceived service quality, the paired-sample t-test was used. Findings The findings provided empirical evidence that perceived service quality significantly influenced patient satisfaction, RI and PWOM. The “responsiveness and reliability” factor was found to be the most influential on patient RI and PWOM. The “tangibility” dimension had the strongest influence on patient satisfaction. Practical implications The results reveal that a reliable and responsive service, empathic personnel behaviors and appropriate tangibles are the outstanding factors for high levels of patient satisfaction, RI and PWOM. Originality/value Although the concepts of perceived service quality, patient satisfaction, RI and PWOM are explored frequently in service literature, there are few researches that focus on specialized health services for women and children’s diseases. By evaluating the service quality, it is hoped to provide an insight to health-care managers about the service quality dimensions and their relationship with patient satisfaction, RI and PWOM, specifically based on women patients.


Author(s):  
Ngan Truong ◽  
Tahir Nisar ◽  
Dan Knox ◽  
Guru Prabhakar

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the service quality of full-service restaurants in Vietnam to explore possible factors that may impact customer perception, which subsequently influences customer satisfaction and behavioural intentions. Based on the DINESERV model and service clues, the possible dimensions to construct customer perception were realised, and four key dimensions were suggested. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected from four urban local full-service restaurants in Vietnam, and factor analysis and SEM-PLS were then performed to uncover the relationship between customer perception, satisfaction and behavioural intentions. Findings The results suggest that customer perception significantly influences customer satisfaction and behavioural intentions, and customer satisfaction itself is also found to have influence on behavioural intentions. Originality/value This is an original piece of work which contributes to the exploration of service quality in developing countries and to the incorporation of cleanliness into analyses of restaurant service quality in particular.


2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 590-613 ◽  
Author(s):  
Swapnarag Swain

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to compare perceived service quality of public/government and private medical college hospitals.Design/methodology/approachThis study adopts a descriptive, cross-sectional and research design. The research sample includes 340 in patients from six medical college hospitals located in the state of Odisha, India. Primary data are collected through a structured closed ended questionnaire containing 66 items on 1–7 point Likert scale. Statistical tools like factor analysis and ANOVA are performed with the help of SPSS-17 software to analyze the collected data.FindingsThis study identifies 13 dimensions of perceived hospital service quality. The comparative study indicates better performance of public/government hospitals across the technical dimensions of perceived service quality, whereas private hospitals report better performance across majority of the functional dimensions.Originality/valueIn the Indian healthcare system, public hospitals provide low-cost healthcare targeted toward low to middle socio-economic population whereas, large corporate private hospitals provide high-cost healthcare targeted toward high-income group. So the comparison between them produces an obvious result indicating better service quality in private hospitals. Present study minimizes this gap by comparing the service quality of public and private medical college hospitals. Medical colleges ensure access to health services for a larger group of people. Thus, similarity in the segment of population receiving medical services in public and private medical colleges is higher, making the comparison of perceived service quality fairer.


Author(s):  
Cham Tat Huei ◽  
Lim Yet Mee ◽  
Aik Nai Chiek

Objective- –This paper aims to examine the importance of brand image, and its impact on hospital service quality as perceived by the medical tourists. Moreover, this paper also evaluates the interrelationships among perceived service quality, patient satisfaction, and behavioural intention. Methodology/Technique – Based on quota sampling method, a questionnaire survey was used to collect data from 400 medical tourists to test the hypothesized relationships in this study. This paper contributes to the understanding about the importance of food allergy awareness among public. Findings – The findings from this study indicate that brand image has a significant positive influence on perceived service quality; and brand image is significantly and positively related to medical tourists' behavioural intention (i.e., their revisit intention). The findings also show that level of satisfaction partially mediates the relationship between service quality and behavioural intention among medical tourists. Novelty – This study is one of the very few empirical studies that examine the importance of brand image in the context of medical tourism. Moreover, this study is also one of the few studies that addressed patient satisfaction as a mediator in the healthcare context. Type of Paper Empirical Keywords: Brand Image, Service Quality, Patient Satisfaction, Behavioral Intention, Medical Tourism


2014 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 30-42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seyed Hamid Reza Ghasemian ◽  
Naser Azad ◽  
Hamid Seyedaliakbar

Purpose – The purpose of this research is analyzing the service quality in capital industrial goods sector by developing a model and new view. So the authors studied several models and articles for exploring the effective variables on service quality and tested them in Aras Haitian Machinery Company that is one of the biggest manufacturers of plastic machinery in Iran and China. Design/methodology/approach – The statistics population included all customers of Aras Haitian Company in 2012 that were scattered in whole Iran and all of them are manufacturers of industrial goods. And finally 102 customers chose by using simple random sampling method. The way of SPSS statistical analysis software was used for exploratory factor analysis and LISREL software for structural equation model (SEM). Findings – Results indicated that there were three new factors (customer perception, customer relation and specialized competencies) that affected on perceived service quality of customers in capital industrial goods sector. The findings showed that these three factors were measured by ten subdimensions through a SEM. Originality/value – This study is the first to explore the effective variables on perceived service quality in capital industrial goods sector with viewpoint of service dominant logic in Iran andalso proposed the first SEM under the rubric of industrial service quality model in this section.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Olusola Ralph Aluko ◽  
Godwin I. Idoro ◽  
Saheed O. Ajayi

Purpose Clients in Nigeria have continuously questioned the quality of services being rendered by architectural firms in building projects. This study aims to investigate the areas of service responsible for determining client satisfaction. Design/methodology/approach The study uses questionnaire for data collection on perceived service quality and indicators of clients’ satisfaction. Findings The results of descriptive statistics suggest that efficient analysis and compliance with client brief along with buildability, flexibility and comprehensiveness of the design are the main technical determinants of clients’ satisfaction. Management measures for engendering clients’ satisfaction include team communication and collaboration as well as regular site visits when required. The study established a significant relationship between the perceived service quality and client satisfaction. At technical level, economical design and compliance with budget, buildability, optimal and error-free design and timely delivery have significant correlation with the perception of service quality, which could engender client satisfaction. At management level, collaboration and coordination, integrity and trust, regular site visits and project management knowledge and skills had significant relationships with perceived service quality. Originality/value To improve overall client satisfaction, architects are expected to focus on these factors in the process of service delivery. Architects’ expertise and skills can be further harnessed through continuous training and understanding of the project environment.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tat-Huei Cham ◽  
Jun-Hwa Cheah ◽  
Hiram Ting ◽  
Mumtaz Ali Memon

PurposeDespite being a popular topic in sports tourism research, limited studies have focused on golf tourism in relation to destination image. The present study aimed to examine the impact of country-related factors on the destination image among golf tourists as well as the interrelationships between perceived service quality, perceived value, satisfaction and behavioural intention in this context in the Malaysian context. Excitement was also examined as a moderator of the relationship between satisfaction and behavioural intention.Design/methodology/approachData was collected from 360 golf tourists using a self-administered questionnaire at the two largest airports (KLIA and KLIA2) in Malaysia. Data analysis was performed using the partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) technique.FindingsThe findings present the significance of country-related factors (i.e. accessibility, safety and security and golf course setting) in determining the image of Malaysia as a golf tourism destination. Destination image, in turn, is found to influence golf tourists' perceived service quality, perceived value and satisfaction; with both perceived service quality and perceived value acting as mediators between destination image and satisfaction. Moreover, the moderation assessment confirms that the level of excitement about golfing in Malaysia strengthens the relationship between their satisfaction and behavioural intention.Originality/valueThis study is one of the few that focuses on the consequential importance of destination image within the golf tourism setting. It highlights the mediating role of perceived service quality and perceived value as well as the moderating role of excitement in understanding the effect of destination image on satisfaction and behavioural intention of golf tourists.


2018 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 76-91 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yogesh P. Pai ◽  
Satyanarayana T. Chary ◽  
Rashmi Yogesh Pai

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to appraise Pai and Chary’s (2016) conceptual framework for measuring patient-perceived hospital service quality (HSQ). Design/methodology/approach A structured questionnaire was used to obtain data from teaching, public and corporate hospital patients. Several tests were conducted to assess the instrument’s reliability and validity. Pai and Chary’s (2016) nine dimensions for measuring HSQ were examined in this paper. Findings The tests confirm that Pai and Chary’s (2016) conceptual framework is reliable and valid. The study also establishes that the nine dimensions measure HSQ. Practical implications The framework empowers managers to assess service quality in any hospital settings, corporate, public and teaching, using an approach that is superior to the existing HSQ scales. Originality/value This paper helps researchers and practitioners to assess HSQ from patient perspectives in any hospital setting.


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