Predicting Patient Loyalty and Service Quality Relationship: A Case Study of Civil Hospital, Ahmedabad, India

Abstract

Purpose: In an era of heightened competition to sustain patient loyalty, quality of interpersonal experiences with the staff, operational quality of hospital operations and overall satisfaction and quality of the healthcare services, in general are to be understood in-depth in both public as well as private organisations. The concept of service quality has led to the growing research on various concepts such as total quality management, market orientation, learning orientation, strategic orientation along with invigorating focus on the customer loyalty and relationship management. The outcomes of service quality (customer relationship management and loyalty), end means for the organisational success, are most significant performance measurement tools in the present competitive market. The present study is an effort in this regard to identify the factors in sustaining customer longevity. Till today few studies in the developing settings were conducted to understand the types of relationship that exists between patient-loyalty and service quality. This study analyses the suitability of customer loyalty concept in the government hospitals through using a case study of one of the biggest hospitals operating in India. Methodology and Tools Applied: The research work is the case study of Civil Hospital Ahmedabad. The data is collected from 205 indoor patients of four departments namely general medicine, orthopedic, pediatrics, obstetric and gynecology. Inter and intra relationship among the measures of service quality and patient loyalty were analysed by using relevant statistical tools to draw out inferences. Findings: Among the three patient loyalty components, using provider again for the same services is found to be more significant followed by using provider again for different services and recommending providers to others in relation to overall service quality as dependent variable, and beta values are figured out as 0.15, 0.12 and 0.09 respectively The 35% R Square value for the model service quality – patient loyalty model indicate weak predictive power of this model. However at the same juncture the study found that no significant difference in the patients' perceptions with respect to patient loyalty and quality and per se, may be concluded that both are identical measures. Alternatively the more satisfied the patients are with the quality of their interactions with staff, the more likely they are going to take treatments for similar and different medical problems and would recommend the provider to their relatives and friends.