Exploring the Relationship Between Hospital Service Quality, Patient Trust, and Loyalty From a Service Encounter Perspective in Elderly With Chronic Diseases

Abstract

Based on the service encounter perspective, this study combines theoretical foundations for such factors as service quality and the characteristics of the hospital service industry to develop a research model scale to investigate whether the quality of hospital services affects patients' perceptions of health service encounters, trust, and loyalty. Nowadays, with the advancement of medical technology, patients pay more attention to the quality of medical services and good service encounters provided by healthcare professionals in order to establish positive patient relationships; hospitals need to improve their own service quality and establish good patient trust relationships so that doctor-patient satisfaction and loyalty can be improved. In a review of related literature, this study found that most past studies focused on issues related of quality of medical services and patient satisfaction, but ignored those related to the relationship between medical service encounters and patient trust and loyalty, as well as the lack of scientific measurement markers for service encounters in the Chinese medical service industry. Therefore, this study uses the Service Encounter Perspective and Service Quality Theory Development Research Scale to collect and analyze data for a typical case of a Chinese tertiary hospital. Finally, this study explores the relationship between the four variables of service quality, service encounter, trust, and loyalty by means of a questionnaire and statistical analysis of the data. Finally, it is concluded that the higher the service quality of the hospital, the higher the customer trust, the higher the service encounter, and in the greater the doctor-patient loyalty.

Can online health information sources really improve patient satisfaction?

“…Many previous studies have shown that product/service quality is an important determinant of satisfaction (36,37). In the healthcare context, this finding is also supported (16,17,38). Accordingly, the quality of a doctor's service has a positive impact on patient satisfaction.…”

Service Quality and Completion Time with Patient Trust

“…This is an open access article under the CC-BY license dapat memenuhi harapan akan membuat pasien terus menggunakan jasa rumah sakit (Shie et al, 2022). Menciptakan suasana aman dan nyaman bagi pasien merupakan tugas pihak rumah sakit untuk memuaskan pasien (Abdurahman et al, 2017).…”

“…Kualitas layanan yang berkualitas merupakan penanda waktu penyelesaian berada dalam batas yang dapat diterima pasien atau pasien tidak merasa jenuh dengan lamanya waktu yang mereka habiskan untuk melakukan kunjungan di rumah sakit khususnya instalasi rawat jalan (Shie et al, 2022).…”

The impact of COVID-19 on the doctor-patient relationship in China

“…Good doctor-patient communication will make patients open their hearts, trust doctors, and prefer cooperation, so that doctors could understand patients' conditions and make effective diagnosis in time ( 12 , 13 ). Higher service quality at the hospital leads to higher customer trust, a better customer experience, and a stronger DPR ( 14 ). Communicating improves patient satisfaction and decreases lawsuits.…”