Page 1 of 9
European Journal of Business &
Social Sciences
Available at https://ejbss.org/
ISSN: 2235-767X
Volume 07 Issue 03
March 2019
Available online: https://ejbss.org/ P a g e | 484
Impact of Service Qualities on Patients Loyalty in Private And
Public Hospitals in Kanniyakumari District
Dr.S.Nadarajan1 and T.ChristhuRani2
1Associate Professor & Head, St.Jude’s College Thoothoor, Kanniyakumari District,
Tamil Nadu. (Affilliated to Manonmanian Sundaranar University,
Abishekapatti, Tirunelveli, Tamil Nadu India).
2Ph.D Scholar (Regular) St.Jude’s College Thoothoor, Kanniyakumari district, Tamil
Nadu.
ABSTRACT
The patients loyalty is the ultimate aim of all service providers in health care industry.
Patients loyalty in an outcome of repeated patients satisfaction on the service provided by the
service providers. The purpose of the study is to analyse the patients loyalty on service
quality factors.The sample respondents are selected from the patients of Kanniyakumari
district. There are four service qualities. They are core service Quality, special service
Quality, hospital service Quality and health quality.
Key words : Service Quality, Core service quality, Special service quality, Hospital service
quality, Health quality, Patients Loyalty.
INTRODUTION
Patients satisfaction is a fundamental requirement for health care providers.
Satisfaction is important when patients themselves and institutional health care service
buyers, make selection decisions. In addition to its positive impact on patient retention and
patients loyalty, patient satisfaction influences the rates of patient compliance with physician
advice . In order to understand various factors affecting patient satisfaction, researchers have
explored various service quality dimensions considered by patients when evaluating health
care qualities, such as physician expertise, convenience, degree of concern shown by the
physicians and other medical staff (i.e. nurses and receptionists), and physical facilities.
Several recent studies have shown that many of these health service quality dimensions
significantly influence patient satisfaction. In this study the service Quality factors included
are core service Quality factors (CSQF); Special Service Quality Factors (SSQF); Hospital
Service Quality Factors (HSQF); and Health quality Factors (HLQF).
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
Health care institutions need to go beyond a medical view and embrace a holistic
social approach to health care. Patients’ perceptions of health care quality is critical to health
Page 2 of 9
European Journal of Business &
Social Sciences
Available at https://ejbss.org/
ISSN: 2235-767X
Volume 07 Issue 03
March 2019
Available online: https://ejbss.org/ P a g e | 485
care organizations’ success because of its influence on satisfaction and hospital profitability.
Perceived health care quality, significantly, affects patients’ behaviours such as loyalty and
word of mouth. Patients’ expectations are assumed to play a role in the process by which an
outcome can be said to be satisfactory or unsatisfactory. Expectations have an important
influence on the patients’ overall satisfaction with a health care experience. Patient
satisfaction is influenced by the degree to which care fulfils expectations.
OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
The main objective of this study is to analyse the impact of various service qualities
on patient’s satisfaction and loyalty in Private and Public hospitals in Kanniyakumari district.
METHODOLOGY OF THE STUDY
The present study is mainly based on primary data. The primary data have been
collected with the help of pre-structured interview schedule. It shows the reliability and
validity of variables included in each concept. The reliability and validity of the concepts are
tested by cronbach alpha and split half run test. The two attempts have been made to enrich
the reliability of validity of variables in each concept.
At the first attempt the variables included in the instruments are varying from 7 to 25
whereas the cronbach alpha of the instruments are ranging from 0.3227 to 0.3919 and the
result of split half run test are varying from 0.3083 to 0.3717 which are lesser than its
standard minimum. At the second attempt the variables have been increased. It varies from 10
to 34. The cronbach alpha of the instruments are varying from 0.0889 to 0.7919 whereas the
results in split half run tests very from 0.6541 to 0.7606. All these results satisfy the validity
of variables in each instruments. These instruments are used to frame the interview schedule.
TOOLS OF ANALYSIS
The ‘f ’statistics has been administered to find out the significant difference
among the private and public sector hospitals regarding various aspects related to the service
qualities in hospitals, patient loyalty.
Impact of CSQ Factors on Patient Loyalty
The perception on core service quality factors (CSQ) in hospital may have its own
influence on the level of patients’ loyalty. It is imperative to examine it for some policy
implications. The multiple regression analysis has been executed to examine the impact of the
CSQ factors on the patients’ loyalty. The fitted regression model is:
y = a + b1X1 + b2X2 + b3X3 + b4X4 + b5X5 + e
Whereas
y - score on patients’ loyalty
Page 3 of 9
European Journal of Business &
Social Sciences
Available at https://ejbss.org/
ISSN: 2235-767X
Volume 07 Issue 03
March 2019
Available online: https://ejbss.org/ P a g e | 486
X1 - score on perception on tangibility
X2 - score on perception on reliability
X3 - score on perception on responsiveness
X4 - score on perception on assurance
X5 - Score on perception on empathy
b1, b5 - regression coefficient of independent variables
a - Intercept and
e - Error term
The impact of the CSQ factors on the patients’ loyalty has been measured among the
patients in private and public hospitals and also for pooled data separately. The results are
shown in Table 1.1
TABLE 1.1
Impact of CSQ on Patients’ Loyalty
Sl.No. CSQ
Regression coefficient in hospitals
Private Public Pooled data
1. Tangibility -0.0443 -0.0144 -0.0246
2. Reliability 0.0717 0.0244 0.0466
3. Responsiveness 0.0334 0.0179 0.0241
4. Assurance 0.1211* 0.0846 0.0997
5. Empathy 0.1614* 0.1021 0.1309*
Constant 0.1173 0.0969 0.1016
R2 0.6362 0.5452 0.6392
F Statistics 7.1084* 4.6844 7.2917*
*Significant at five per cent level
The significantly and positively influencing CSQ factor on patients’ loyalty among
the patients in the private hospital is empathy. A unit increase in the perception on empathy
would results in an increase in patients’ loyalty by 0.1211 and 0.1814 respectively. Among
the patients in the public hospitals, no CSQ factors have a significant impact on patients’
