Effect of Personnel Care Quality of Private Healthcare Providers on Arab Patients’ Satisfaction a nd Word of Mouth Communication: An Empirical Research in India

Abstract

Personnel quality in service industry is a significant factor as it interacts directly with customers. Thus, the understanding of personnel quality is an important aspect for strategies’ development and implementation to enhance the service delivery process. In the healthcare and medical tourism industries, personnel quality such as quality of doctors, nurses, administrative staff and interpreters play a major role in delivering good service to patients. Generally, there are studies relating to quality of service based on selected dimensions and its effects on patients’ satisfaction and word-of-mouth. However, studies focusing on personnel quality and its impact on the satisfaction and word-of-mouth of patients are still scarce. Hence, the present research aims to measure perspectives of Arab patients concerning the personnel quality of health care providers, satisfaction and word-of-mouth of patients in Indian private hospitals. To achieve this aim, a required data was collected from 335 Arab patients though valid and reliable structural questionnaire. Appropriate statistical methods including Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) were applied in the present research to analyze the collected data and to examine the proposed model and hypotheses. Based on the analysis, it was found that the dimensions of doctors’ quality and nurses’ quality were significant, whereas the dimensions of administrative staffs’ quality and interpreters’ quality were not significant to predict the satisfaction and word-of-mouth of Arab patient. Thus, the results of this research can assist private healthcare providers to take appropriate policy decisions.