The impact of customer perceived service quality on customer satisfaction for private health centre in Malaysia: a structural equation modeling approach

The main purpose of this paper is to develop and test the modified SERVQUAL model to measure Malaysian private healthcare quality. A total of 131 participants were selected randomly those visit private hospitals in Malaysia for healthcare facility. Then data were examined using means, correlations, principal component and exploratory factor analysis to establish the modified SERVQUAL scale’s reliability, underlying dimensionality and convergent, discriminant validity. This paper than utilizes the structural equation modeling technique to do confirmatory factor analysis and test the hypothesized positive inter-relationships between customer’s perception and customer satisfaction. This paper reviews and identifies essential service quality variables that are associated with the customer satisfaction in the private hospital. Customer satisfaction should reflect the need of healthcare quality requested by the customers, as direct and indirect relationships exist between personnel support and customer satisfaction and attention to customers and hospital facilities and between hospital facilities and customer satisfaction. The proposed model has been tested on only one private hospital in Malaysia due to short period. Due to this small sample size and the convenient method of data collection, there is a possibility of biasness of the authors may play a role in the outcome of the study. The main contribution of this study is that, it proposes a way to assess quality services in the private hospitals. This study has proposed a conceptual model that need further investigation and opens a way for future research

The Role of Affect in Service Encounter Satisfaction: An Experimental Study.

The objective of the dissertation was to address the influence of affect towards service provider on service encounter satisfaction. The following research questions were examined: (1) the impact of affect towards the service provider on perceived performance and satisfaction; (2) the relative influence of affective versus cognitive variables in explaining satisfaction with services; (3) the explanatory ability of the disconfirmation model of satisfaction within the context of services. An experimental study was designed to address the above questions. Two factors, affect towards the service provider labeled Evaluative Impression of the service provider and Interaction Style (one dimension of perceived performance) of the service provider were manipulated in a 3 (Positive Evaluative Impression, Negative Evaluative Impression and Neutral Evaluative Impression) x 2 (Positive versus Negative Interaction Style) design. The dependent variables of interest were Perceived Performance and Satisfaction with the service provided. The experimental stimuli were six videotapes, each of which showed a spokesperson introducing a hypothetical scenario and the proposed manipulations to the audience followed by an interaction between a doctor and a patient. A total of 198 students participated in six computer lab sessions, where they watched the videotape of the interaction and responded on the computer regarding their perceptions of the quality of care provided. A 3 x 2 full factorial MANOVA was performed on the experimental data. The results indicated that Interaction style had a major impact on the satisfaction with the physician. An interaction between Evaluative Impression and Interaction Style also achieved significance. To address the structural relationships among the model components, additional data was collected in two of the cells, positive evaluative impression/positive interaction style (The Affect Group) and neutral evaluative impression/positive interaction style (The Cognitive Group). The hypothesized relationships were tested using structural equations analysis. Results indicated that the Affect-Based Model of Service Encounter Satisfaction provides a better fit to the data compared to the Disconfirmation Model. The main limitations of the study are its artificial nature and high correlations found among measures of performance, disconfirmation and satisfaction. The positive influence of Evaluative Impression on perceived performance is suggested to have significant theoretical and managerial implications

Rasch analysis of the Psychiatric Out-Patient Experiences Questionnaire (POPEQ)

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The Psychiatric Out-Patient Experiences Questionnaire (POPEQ) is an 11-item core measure of psychiatric out-patients experiences of the perceived outcome of the treatment, the quality of interaction with the clinician, and the quality of information provision. The POPEQ was found to have evidence for reliability and validity following the application of classical test theory but has not previously been assessed by Rasch analysis.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Two national postal surveys of psychiatric outpatients took place in Norway in 2004 and 2007. The performance of the POPEQ, including item functioning and differential item functioning, was assessed by Rasch analysis. Principal component analysis of item residuals was used to assess the presence of subdimensions.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>6,677 (43.3%) and 11,085 (35.2%) psychiatric out patients responded to the questionnaire in 2004 and 2007, respectively. All items in the scale were retained after the Rasch analysis. The resulting scale had reasonably good fit to the Rasch model. The items performed the same for the two survey years and there was no differential item functioning relating to patient characteristics. Principal component analysis of the residuals confirmed that the measure to a high degree is unidimensional. However, the data also reflects three potential subscales, each relating to one of the three included aspects of health care.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The POPEQ had excellent psychometric properties and Rasch analysis further supported the construct validity of the scale by also identifying the three subdimensions originally included as components in the instrument development. The 11-item instrument is recommended in future research on psychiatric out-patient experiences. Future development may lead to the construction of more precise measures of the three subdomains that the POPEQ is based on.</p

Measuring patient-perceived continuity of care for patients with long-term conditions in primary care

Background: Continuity of care is widely acknowledged as important for patients with multi-morbidity but simple, service-orientated indices cannot capture the full impact of continuity in complex care delivery systems. The patient's perspective is important to assess outcomes fully and this is challenging because generic measures of patient-perceived continuity are lacking. We investigate the Chao Perception of Continuity (Chao PC) scale to determine its suitability as a measure of continuity of care for patients with a long-term condition (stroke), and co-morbidity, in a primary care setting. Methods: Design and Setting: A questionnaire study embedded in a prospective observational cohort study of outcomes for patients following acute stroke. Participants: 168 community dwelling patients (58% male) mean age 68 years a minimum one year post-stroke. Functional status: Barthel Index mean =16. Intervention: A 23-item questionnaire, the Chao Perception of Continuity (Chao PC) scale, sent by post to their place of residence or administered face to face as part of the final cohort study assessment. Results: 310 patients were invited to participate; 168 (54%) completed a questionnaire. All 23 questionnaire items were entered into a Principal Component Analysis. Emergent factors from the exploratory analysis were (1) inter-personal trust (relational continuity); (2) interpersonal knowledge and information (informational and relational continuity) and (3) the process of care (managerial continuity). The strongest of these was inter-personal trust. Conclusion: The context-specific items in the Chao PC scale are difficult for respondents to interpret in a United Kingdom Primary Care setting resulting in missing data and low response rates. The Chao-PC therefore cannot be recommended for wider application as a general measure of continuity of care without significant modification. Our findings reflect the acknowledged dimensions of continuity and support the concept of continuity of care as a multi-dimensional construct. We demonstrate the overlapping boundaries across the dimensions in the factor structure derived. Trust and interpersonal knowledge are clearly identified as valuable components of any patient-perceived measure of continuity of care

A Thematic Analysis of Provider Comparisons of Telemedicine Satisfaction Measures

Satisfaction remains one of the most frequently used and inconsistent measures in Information Systems research. These inconsistencies can create challenges for interpreting the results of satisfaction measures. These challenges are noticeable in the telemedicine literature where researchers often rely on single item measures of overall satisfaction. While researchers have attempted to address these issues by studying satisfaction’s measurements and methodologies there remain gaps in the knowledge on how variations in measures may be interpreted regarding decision making. This research seeks to contribute to the knowledge in this area by investigating medical provider perspectives on single versus multi-dimensional measures of telemedicine satisfaction. Through a thematic analysis this research shows variations and similarities in decision making between measures across eleven themes. The results show not only variations in views but indicate subjective experiential interpretations of results. Findings along with implications for researchers and medical providers are discussed

The Medical Tourism Index: Scale Development and Validation

Medical tourism is an estimated $100 billion dollar industry. Despite the increasing number of people, companies and countries involved in medical tourism, we know very little about the key drivers and how countries are perceived as medical tourism destinations. The purpose of this paper is to present the Medical Tourism Index, a new type of country-based performance measure to assess the attractiveness of a country as a medical tourist destination. We followed a rigorous multi-steps scale development procedure by using four empirical studies based on 4995 respondents. The MTI is a multidimensional construct with 4 dimensions (country, tourism, medical costs, medical facility and services) with 34 underlying items. Our results show the MTI allows to measure meaningful differences between countries, not only on an aggregated level but also on each sub-indexes. It provides a useful tool for the various stakeholders to measure and manage their medical tourism destination brand

Examining dimensions of patient satisfaction with telemedicine

During the outbreak of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) medical institutions and practitioners have drastically increased their adoption of telemedicine. The proliferation of telemedicine systems has sparked renewed interest among IS researchers in evaluating its usage. One of the main indicators used to measure the success of telemedicine services is patient satisfaction. Yet several problems exist with current methods used to evaluate telemedicine satisfaction. Patient satisfaction with telemedicine is frequently evaluated using either single question items or handmade instruments that are seldom assessed for validity. While telemedicine satisfaction is typically evaluated through single measures, satisfaction is considered a complex and multidimensional concept. Because of the lack of insight that satisfaction measures provide it may be difficult to interpret or act upon the results of evaluations. The goal of this study is to examine and evaluate the dimensionality of telemedicine satisfaction and its perceived value. This study achieves this by following a novel multi-phased mixed methods approach. This approach includes exploratory, confirmatory and evaluatory phases that are used to: 1) identify telemedicine satisfaction dimensions and their relationship to satisfaction; 2) develop and confirm a model of patient satisfaction with telemedicine and 3) evaluate the value of the results in practice. The results demonstrate a model of satisfaction informed by system quality, information quality, health service quality, usefulness, and additional intention measures. Additional findings demonstrate the challenges with subjective interpretations of satisfaction’s meaning by providers. Results show that interpretations can vary between single-item measures and dimensional views of satisfaction. Implications and recommendations are discussed

CONCEPTUALISATION OF SERVICE QUALITY, LEAN MANAGEMENT AND PATIENTS’ SATISFACTION AMONG DENTAL HOSPITALS IN INDONESIA

Patient satisfaction is the outcome of health services, so that patient satisfaction is one of the goals of improving the quality of health services that need to be considered by the hospital in this era of competition. Patients or communities getting satisfaction on health services held will tend to comply with advice, loyalty or obedience to an agreed treatment plan. Customers can also be said to be satisfied if what they receive are more significant than what they expected. Therefore, every hospital needs a healthcare quality assurance approach which is one of the essential tools for the company that manages or plans health services. For that, the current paper emphasises on the conceptualisation of service quality, lean management and patients’ satisfaction among dental hospitals in Indonesia. The dental hospitals in Indonesia should highlight the institution’s ability to manage the tangibility dimension and improve assurance and empathy dimensions. Moreover, Indonesian hospitals should stress on tangibility and reliability while boosting the most crucial dimension called empathy. JEL: O14; I10; I15; I18  Article visualizations

The Forensic Restrictiveness Questionnaire : development, validation and revision

Introduction: Forensic psychiatric care is often practiced in closed institutions. These highly regulated, secure, and prescriptive environments arguably reduce patient autonomy, self-expression, and personhood. Taken together these settings are restrictive as patients’ active participation in clinical, organizational, community, and personal life-worlds are curtailed. The consequences of patients’ experiences of restrictiveness have not been explored empirically. This study aimed to develop a psychometrically-valid measure of experiences of restrictiveness. This paper presents the development, validation, and revision of the Forensic Restrictiveness Questionnaire (FRQ). Methods: In total, 235 patients recruited from low, medium, and high secure hospitals across England completed the FRQ. The dimensionality of the 56-item FRQ was tested using Principle Axis Factor Analysis and parallel analysis. Internal consistency was explored with Cronbach’s α. Ward climate (EssenCES) and quality of life (FQL-SV) questionnaires were completed by participants as indicators of convergent validity. Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and Cronbach’s α guided the removal of items that did not scale adequately. Results: The analysis indicated good psychometric properties. EFA revealed a unidimensional structure, suggesting a single latent factor. Convergent validity was confirmed as the FRQ was significantly negatively correlated with quality of life (Spearman’s ρ = −0.72) and ward climate (Spearman’s ρ = −0.61). Internal consistency was strong (α = 0.93). Forty-one items were removed from the pilot FRQ. The data indicate that a final 15-item FRQ is a valid and internally reliable measure. Conclusion: The FRQ offers a novel and helpful method for clinicians and researchers to measure and explore forensic patients’ experiences of restrictiveness within secure hospitals