Investigation of factors influencing patients’ satisfaction and loyalty in the primary care
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15170/MM.2019.53.03.02Abstract
THE AIM OF THE PAPER
Our study deals with the influencing factors of patients’ satisfaction with their primary care physicians, and with satisfaction-loyalty connection. We investigated which service-quality items may influence the best the satisfaction with the primary care and whether the satisfaction has an effect on the loyalty to the physician.
METHODOLOGY
Data were collected by interviews using nationally and internationally validated questionnaires. The sample was chosen from inhabitants of three different cities. The data was processed by IBM SPSS Statistics 24 and SmartPLS programmes. The sample was evaluated with mathematical-statistical methods: descriptive statistics, one-way ANOVA, and PLS Path Modeling.
MOST IMPORTANT RESULTS
The satisfaction results of this paper can be compared with similar national publications. 80% of respondents were still satisfied or very satisfied with their family physicians. Their average performance was 4,27 measured on a five-point Liker-scale.
According to PLS regression results, the satisfaction of patients is influenced remarkably by the involvement of patients into decision-making (ß=0,459) and providing information to patients (ß=0,210), but the role of the physical environment is not a relevant factor in satisfaction. Our novel finding is that patient-physician communication significantly influence the overall satisfaction. Moreover, a linear correlation was also proved between satisfaction and loyalty (ß=0,727).
RECOMMENDATIONS
The results of the present research highlight new aspect of quality improvement factors in the everyday practice. Besides the conventional quality dimensions in the primary care (waiting times, physical environment) newer items appeared as relevant factors (communication, patient involvement). Based on our results, the directions of practice development can be appointed: the good patient-physician communication, handling patients as equal partner and involvement of the patient into the decision-making process should play a crucial role in the future.
