Understanding patient satisfaction and loyalty in public and private primary health care

Ophthalmology Practice-Related Factors and Patient Loyalty: Mediating Role of Patient Satisfaction

Background

In the current period, competition among the healthcare sector has increased and healthcare providers try to get loyalty and satisfy the patients by establishing different strategies.

Purpose

: This current study aims to discover ophthalmology practice-related factors and patient loyalty and to analyze the mediating role of patient satisfaction in private ophthalmology services in various private centers in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Methods

: The nature of the study is quantitative, and data is collected with a questionnaire. We used a pre-tested questionnaire that was divided into different sections assessing ophthalmology practice-related factors, patient satisfaction, and patient loyalty. These were measured using a 5-point Likert scale, focusing on financial aspects, access to facilities, staff services, and ophthalmologist services. Further, the smartPLS technique was used to extract the results by using SmartPLS.

Results

: The analysis sample size consisted of 323 participants from Saudi Arabia. The results found that ophthalmologist service has a positive relationship with patient satisfaction (β= 0.369, p = 0.000) as well as patient loyalty (β= 0.234, p = 0.004), but there are some ophthalmology practice-related factors such as financial aspects, access and facilities, and staff service, which showed no relationship with patient loyalty but a positive relationship with patient satisfaction. Further analysis found that patient satisfaction as a mediator has a positive relationship between ophthalmology practice-related factors, namely, ophthalmologist service (β= 0.228, P= 0.000), financial aspects (β= 0.102, p = 0.019), access and facilities (β= 0.109, p =0.000), and staff service (β= 0.188, p = 0.000) with patient loyalty.

Conclusion

: The present study findings reveal the importance of focused patient satisfaction improvements in enhancing patient loyalty within ophthalmological clinic settings in Saudi Arabia. Furthermore, we recommend future exploratory prospective research to find the satisfaction and loyalty factors that change over a period of time.

Perceptions of Hearing Health Care: A Qualitative Analysis of Satisfied and Dissatisfied Online Reviews

PURPOSE

The aim of this study was to examine the hearing health care experience of satisfied and dissatisfied consumers as reported on Google reviews.

METHOD

Using qualitative thematic analysis, open-text responses from Google regarding hearing health care clinics across 40 U.S. cities were examined. During the original search, 13,168 reviews were identified. Purposive sampling led to a total of 8,420 five-star reviews and 321 one-star reviews. The sample consisted of 500 five-star (satisfied) and 234 one-star (dissatisfied) reviews, describing experiences with audiology clinics, excluding reviews related to ear, nose, and throat services; other medical specialties; and those not relevant to hearing health care.

RESULTS

Satisfied and dissatisfied consumer reviews yielded nuanced dimensions of the hearing health care consumer experience, which were grouped into distinct domains, themes, and subthemes. Six and seven domains were identified from the satisfied and dissatisfied reviews, encompassing 23 and 26 themes, respectively. The overall experience domain revealed emotions ranging from contentment and gratitude to dissatisfaction and waning loyalty. The clinical outcomes domain highlights the pivotal contribution of well-being and hearing outcomes to the consumer experience, while the standard of care domain underscores shared expectations for punctuality, person-centered care, and efficient communication. Facility quality, professional competence, and inclusive care were also highlighted across positive and negative reviews.

CONCLUSIONS

Findings indicate dimensions of satisfied and dissatisfied hearing health care consumer experiences, identifying areas for potential service refinement. These consumer experiences inform person-centric service delivery in hearing health care.

Patients' satisfaction with nursing care quality and associated factors: A cross-section study

AIM

This research aimed to evaluate patients' satisfaction with the nursing care quality during their hospitalization.

DESIGN

Quantitative cross-sectional descriptive design.

METHODS

A convenience sample of 238 patients were recruited from hospitals in two provinces in Saudi Arabia. Patient satisfaction was measured by the Arabic version of the Patients' Satisfaction with Nursing Care Quality Questionnaire (PSNCQQ-Ar).

RESULTS

Significant differences were found between Saudi provinces regarding the overall quality of nursing care (M = 4.65, p < 0.001). The study revealed mean significant variations between patient satisfaction with nursing care and sociodemographic factors, including age (p = 0.002), education level (p = 0.047), marital status (p = 0.017), employment status (p = 0.038), urban vs. suburban residence (p = 0.006), length of hospitalization (p = 0.001), and accompaniment by a family member (p = 0.014). Improving patients' experience during their hospitalization requires regular examination of the quality of nursing care services.

PATIENT CONTRIBUTION

This research enhances our understanding of patients satisfaction toward the quality of nursing care received during hospitalization.

A Systematic Review on Hospital’s Patient Satisfaction and Loyalty in Indonesia

Background: Customer loyalty is identified as a critical component of a company's success and profitability including in hospitals. Customer loyalty can only be accomplished if the company can provide high-quality services. The purpose of this study was to understand the influence or factors behind patient loyalty. Methods: Systematic literature review methods were used to process articles found in various journals and databases such as Elsevier, NCBI, Lancet, Springer, Nature, Taylor and Francis, ProQuest, Emerald, JSTOR, Web of Science, and GARUDA SINTA (the Science and Technology Index of expertise in Indonesia).  Results: The initial search resulted in 1.174 (1 duplicated) and 1.173 were screened based on title and abstract. Finally, 29 articles were included for review regarding inclusion and exclusion criteria. The finding shows that concern for medical staff, perceived value, price, trust, treatment effectiveness, Service Quality, Interaction, Infrastructure, Process, and brand image, consequently affect patient satisfaction and loyalty. Those factors as an intervening variable in patient loyalty. Conclusion: In general, hospital health workers' competency, tangible factors (facilities), communication, punctuality in work (responsiveness), patient waiting time (facility satisfaction and responsiveness), queuing system, drug availability (price factor, facility satisfaction), providing information to clients (trust and communication, guarantees), equal treatment for uninsured patients, and complaint system for clients (Hospital Image) impact patient loyalty directly or indirectly.

Course and Correlates of Stigma in Patients on Opioid Agonist Treatment: A Prospective Study from an Outpatient Treatment Program in India

BACKGROUND

Individuals with opioid dependence experience stigma and discrimination. Stigma can potentially reduce treatment-seeking and negatively affect treatment outcomes. We aimed to study the course of stigma and its correlates among patients receiving opioid agonist treatment (OAT).

METHODS

We recruited 51 subjects (aged between 18 and 45 years) registered in the OAT clinic from February to September 2019. We excluded subjects dependent on alcohol and other drugs (except for cannabis and tobacco), with severe mental illness, intellectual disability, and organic brain disease. We assessed the internalized and enacted stigma and quality of life at the treatment entry and after 3 months. Relationship of stigma with quality of life, socio-demographic, and other clinical variables were examined at the treatment entry.

RESULTS

Mean age of the subjects was 26.7 (± 5) years. At the end of three months, 33 (64.7%) patients were retained in the treatment. Internalized stigma correlated negatively with the social and environmental domains of quality of life. The strength of the correlations was modest. No significant correlation was found between demographic and clinical variables and internalized stigma and enacted stigma scores. Both internalized and enacted stigma scores reduced significantly at 3 months follow-up. The significance levels were retained even after controlling for the baseline quality of life scores. Stigma at the treatment entry did not predict early dropout.

CONCLUSION

Despite higher severity at the treatment entry, the level of internalized and enacted stigma reduced significantly within three months of an outpatient-based OAT program.

A Comparison of Patient Satisfaction When Using the Insured and Non-insured in Public Health Center (Puskesmas Kasihan 1) Bantul, Indonesia

BACKGROUND: In Indonesia, the health sector has experienced a very significant development. Fair and equitable health care is one way to fulfill the health rights of each individual. Therefore, puskesmas are required to provide good service quality through conformity to standards with customer needs. The creation of service quality will certainly create customer satisfaction for service users when using health assurance and non-assurance. AIM: This study was to know a comparison of patient satisfaction when using the insured and non-insured in Public Health Center (Puskesmas Kasihan 1) Bantul, Indonesia. METHODS: This study was a cross-sectional study, with 222 samples with 111 respondents using health assurance and 111 non-assurance. Samples were collected with a cluster sampling technique taken from nine service polyclinics in Puskesmas Kasihan 1 Bantul. Data were analyzed using independent sample t-test. RESULTS: The study found that the average patient satisfaction with health insurance was 34.76 more than the average patient satisfaction with non-health insurance was 29.10. Based on the results of the analysis, the mean ± sd of patient satisfaction with health insurance was 29.10 ± 3.04 compared to the satisfaction of non-health insurance patients, namely, 34.76 ± 3.61 with a Sig value of 0.000, which means that there is a significant difference between patient satisfaction using the insured and non-insured. CONCLUSIONS: Patients when using the health insured are more satisfied than patient’s non-insured.