The Empirical Research On The Relationship Between Patients' Satisfaction And Word-of-Mouth Comment In Modern Hospitals

Aims: Research on the reactions of patients is the new trend in hospital management. At present, many experts analyze the patients'satisfaction in various ways but fewer researchers study the influence on the hospital from patients'word-of-mouth comment,especially the research on the relationship between patients'satisfaction and word-of-mouth comment.Therefore, this paper analyzes the relationship between patients'satisfaction and word-of-mouth comment.1, Analyzing the satisfaction degree in patients; 2, Analyzing the public praises of demography data; 3, It forecasts the number of different types of patients'word-of-mouth comment and then establishes a prediction model; 4, It forecasts the number of different types of patients'word-of-mouth comments to estimate the future economic benefit and the possibly-implemented social benefit;5, It establishes the index evaluation system fit for the research on the relationship between patients'satisfaction and word-of-mouth comment.Based on the analysis, the paper purposes to make the hospital managers aware that patients'word-of-mouth comment is important and then focuses on the different patients. Managers could strengthen word-of-mouth management while effectively utilizing it, which benefits the current complex relationship between doctors and patients and helps to improve the social benefit and economic benefit in the hospital as well as to promote the development of the hospital.Methods: A questionnaire survey was used to obtain the data. On the basis of domestic and overseas materials and previous studies, combined with the Brain-storming and Delphi-experts reports, we raised the questionnaire after considering the current situation of patients'satisfaction and word-of-mouth comment and taking the coputerised results as the reference.Among the satisfied patients in the computer records in a hospital which is to be in line with standards in Beijing, 38 patients in 2006 were selected at random as Group A.Among the patients (except those who are satisfied and the ones making complaints ), 100 in 2006 were selected at random as Group B.Among the patients who make complaints, 46 in 2006 were selected at random as Group C. Fuzzy Synthetical Judgment,Analytic Hierarchy Process(AHP) and many other methods of correlation-analysis were used along with SPSS13.0 and MATLAB7.0.Results: According to the analysis, among the patients, the young men under 35 are more likely to comment word-of-mouth, and the persons with higher education and the civil servant would exchange hospitals more.With the fitting previous results based on the data, one more is added into A and B respectively, the total numbers of comments could increase 28 and 21 respectively; while if one more is added into C, the total number could increase 108.The prediction results of word-of-mouth comment of patients who were classified by levels show that: the patients in Group A were divided into the classes of very satisfied and satisfied. When one more is added into the two classes respectively, the total numbers of comments could increase 35 and 26 respectively. The patients in Group B were divided into the classes of very satisfied, satisfied and acceptable. When one more is added into each of the three classes, the total numbers of comments could increase 22, 19 and 41 respectively.According to the estimated results, the patients in Group A, B and C could influence the economic benefits estimated as 306 yuan, 248 yuan and 2998 yuan.According to the estimated results of patients who were classified by levels, each patient in the averages of very satisfied and satisfied in Group A could influence the economic benefits estimated as 372 yuan and 289 yuan respectively. Each patient in the averages of very satisfied and satisfied in Group B could influence the economic benefits estimated as 252 yuan and 227 yuan respectively. Because the economic benefit from the patients of acceptable is unknown now, it is considered as 0.Conclusion: patients have various word-of-mouth comment effectiveness. The bases of the hospital development is to grasp the lever of satisfaction, to use the word-of-mouth comment effectively and to reinforce the word-of-mouth management.Therefore, we insist that the core of hospital management is patients at the center; the key of hospital management is to change the negative word-of-mouth for beneficial effectiveness; the root of the hospital management is to perfect the information of word-of-mouth management system.In summary, we should accept that patients should be the first, protect the benefits of the patients, perform the change from crisis to opportunity and perfect the management system and we should pay attention to the patients'comments, improve the communication between doctors and patients, raise patients'satisfaction and win the patients'favour. And then we could perform a win-win service, and serve the most patients. Finally, it gave advice for the hospital: it felt service is central with the patient;it encourages management to mold its image and look;outside the hospital in undertaking its duty,adapting public relations strategy seizing the opportunity and greeting the challenge.