Patient Satisfaction with Health Care Services; An Application of Physician's Behavior as a Moderator

Abstract

Patient satisfaction is a measure of the extent to which a patient is content with the health care they received from their health care provider. Patient satisfaction is one of the most important factors to determine the success of a health care facility. The purpose of this study was to determine patient satisfaction with healthcare services and encompass the physician's behavior as moderation between patient satisfaction and healthcare services. The study seeks to measure the health care services, like a laboratory and diagnostic care, preventive healthcare and prenatal care, to patient satisfaction in the public health sectors of Pakistan. A descriptive survey research design was used for this study. The target population was patients from the out-patient department (OPD) of three public hospitals from Pakistan. By using the convenient sampling technique, 290 sample participants were selected from the target population. The reliability scales were tallied by using Cronbach's Alpha. The findings of the study are gleaned by using regression to explore patient satisfaction with the health care services, and whether or not the physician's behavior moderates the link of patient satisfaction and healthcare services. SPSS Hayes process was used for the moderation effect of the physician's behavior. The main results of the regression analysis validate that health care services, such as laboratory and diagnostic care, preventive healthcare, and prenatal care, have a significant and positive effect on patient satisfaction. Specifically, the study suggests that the physician's behavior significantly moderates the effect of health care services on the satisfaction of patients. The overall opinions about the satisfaction level of patients for the availability of health services in the hospitals were good. The degree of satisfaction was satisfactory with respect to laboratory and diagnostic care, preventive healthcare, and prenatal care services. Based on the outcomes, the study confirms that the proposed hypotheses are statistically significant. Furthermore, the directions for future research of the study are offered.

Keywords: Pakistan; healthcare services; laboratory and diagnostic care; patient satisfaction; physician’s behavior; prenatal care; preventive healthcare.

Figure 1

Conceptual (Hypothesized) model.

Figure 2

Interactive effect of the laboratory and diagnostic care (LDC) and physician’s behavior (PB) on patient satisfaction.

Figure 3

Interactive effect of the preventive healthcare (PHC) and PB on patient satisfaction.

Figure 4

Interactive effect of the prenatal care (PC) and PB on patient satisfaction.