An Empirical Study On The Relationship Among Medical Service Quality,Inpatient Satisfaction And Loyalty

ObjectivesThis paper chooses the inpatients in a tertiary referral center as the objects of investigation to investigates the status quo of inpatient satisfaction and loyalty and the influencing factors of medical service quality.Through exploring the relationship among the three with the help of empirical study,we proposes to improve inpatient satisfaction and loyalty by enhancing medical service quality.It provides a reference for improving the doctor-inpatient relationship,improving the quality of medical services,enhancing the strength of the hospital,maintaining and improving inpatient satisfactory and loyalty and promoting the sustainable development of the hospital.MethodsThe questionnaire survey was performed to establish database.Then the relationships among the medical service quality,inpatient satisfactory and loyalty within the tertiary referral center were explored by such statistical analysis methods as the descriptive statistical analysis,the reliability and validity analysis,one-way ANOVA,correlation analysis and regression analysis and etc.Furthermore,the mediating roles of inpatient satisfaction between medical service and inpatient loyalty were studied with Baron & Kenny’s mediator variable testing criteria.Results(1)The average score of the five dimensions of inpatients’ perception of medical service as well as the score of their satisfaction and loyalty are higher than 4 points,which indicates that inpatients have a high satisfactory and loyalty toward the hospital.(2)There are significant differences in inpatients’ age,occupation,educational level and the service quality of inpatient departments as well as its partial dimensions.But there is nearly no evident difference in satisfaction and loyalty.The level of inpatient income has an evident effect on the service quality and its partial dimensions as well as the inpatient satisfactory,and there isno conspicuous difference in inpatient loyalty.(3)There is a correlation between inpatients’ perception of medical service quality and their satisfaction,and the correlation coefficient reaches 0.758.(4)There is a correlation between inpatients’ perception of medical service quality and their loyalty,and the correlation coefficient reaches 0.581.(5)Inpatient satisfaction has a partial mediating effect between inpatient loyalty and the medical service quality,and its mediating effect is 0.386,which accounts for 66.3% of the gross effect.Conclusions(1)Inpatients in the hospital have high satisfactory and loyalty.In the five dimensions of inpatients’ perception of service quality,reliability scores the highest while empathy scores the lowest,indicating that the hospital is able to provide safe and normative service,but in the care of patients and providing individualized service there is a long way to go.(2)The quality of medical service has a significant effect on the inpatient satisfaction and loyalty.The higher the perception of service quality,the higher the inpatient satisfaction and loyalty.Improving the quality of medical service as well as inpatient satisfaction and loyalty is of supreme importance to the practice that guiding the hospital enforce “patient-oriented”management.(3)Inpatient satisfaction has a significant effect on their loyalty.The higher the satisfaction,the higher the loyalty.At the same time,inpatients’ satisfaction has an evident mediating effect between the service quality and inpatient loyalty.The former affects the latter through inpatient satisfaction.