Patient care, satisfaction and service quality in health care

Abstract

It is becoming increasingly important in the healthcare setting to treat patients as consumers and measure their satisfaction with medical services rendered. As such, patient satisfaction should be considered an important output of a country's healthcare system, basically reflecting the stage of its development. The conducted study tested students' satisfaction with the quality of service provided by student polyclinics. In particular, the study has analysed the impacts of personal relationships, promptness and tangibility on student satisfaction. The findings imply that all three factors significantly affect patient satisfaction, with personal relationships having the strongest impact. Such results suggest that healthcare providers should encourage their doctors to devote more time to their patients and show genuine concern for patients' problems if they wish to improve overall satisfaction of their patients with the delivered services. © 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.