Antecedents and Consequences of Patient Satisfaction in the Context of Private Hospitalization Services

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the impacts of perceived quality and perceived value on patient satisfaction as well as the influence of patient satisfaction on hospital’s brand image, patient loyalty and word-of-mouth intention in the context of private hospitalization services. With regards to the conceptualization of perceived quality, this study also attempts to uncover the underlying dimensions of hospitalization quality in the specific context of private hospital. This study surveyed 254 patients who were admitted for at least three days at private hospital in Malaysia, revealing that patient satisfaction with hospitalization services could be explained directly or indirectly by five hospitalization quality domains namely outcome quality, rights and privacy, medical quality, service quality, and servicescape. The findings of this study also show that patient satisfaction has significant impacts on all the three consequences variables – brand image, patient loyalty and WoM intention. The two major contributions of this study include the conceptualization of hospitalization quality domains and the newly developed measurement of perceived value in the context of profit-oriented healthcare institutions.