FACTORS AFFECTING PATIENT SATISFACTION IN PUBLIC HOSPITALS IN BANGKOK

Abstract

Customer satisfaction is an important parameter for assessing the quality of patient services. There is a need to assess public hospitals because they are important providers of services to patients, whose satisfaction is important. This study examined the relationship between service quality and the resultant customer satisfaction as experienced by patients. This led to an examination of the relationship between that satisfaction and patient loyalty. The research methodology consisted of a quantitative analysis where the SAS program was used for analyzing data from a questionnaire survey, using Multiple Regression Analysis, Independent Sample T-Test and One-Way Anova. The survey involved 484 respondents who were out-patients in six Bangkok hospitals. The result showed that service quality and its eight aspects did have a relationship which produced a significant effect on patient satisfaction. The research finding showed that the most important factors of customer satisfaction were perceived price fairness and waiting time. The analysis also revealed that seven demographic factors, such as gender and age, acted as moderating variables which had an effect on customer satisfaction. The majority of the patients were female between 26 – 35 years who emphasized perceived price fairness, waiting time, service personnel behavior (service quality) and personnel communication. The return to a hospital for treatment was dependent on the medical service quality, the cost of medical treatment, and the waiting time. The findings of this research recommended that public hospitals should enhance customer satisfaction, and could improve the service even further, especially in terms of communicating to staff the need for faster service to reduce waiting time.