Health Service Quality: Comment on " How outpatient services quality in hospitals impact on patient's loyalty?"

Today service quality and patient loyalty are critical impact on Health-care organizations` performance. This study aimed at making a survey on the relationship between outpatient service quality and patients’ loyalty in selected general public hospitals related to Shiraz University of Medical Sciences in 2012. In this descriptive, analytical and cross sectional study 256 cases of the outpatients were investigated in four public hospitals in Shiraz. The Standard questionnaires were used as data collection tool. Data were analyzed using SPSS.18 software and descriptive statistics including Spearman''s Correlation Coefficient and pair t- test. The findings revealed a meaningful difference between the patients’ perception and expectation in all dimensions of SERVQUAL. The patients rated ‘reliability’ to have a high gap (-2, 62) and ‘accessibility’ as the least gap (-1, 34). Among loyalty dimensions they ranked the positive word- of- mouth approach as the most important (4, 1) and price sensitivity as the least important (1, 81). The results of Pearson Correlation Test revealed overall quality and loyalty dimensions were related with each other (p<0.05). This study showed that qualities of the provided outpatient services in hospitals were lower than patients'' expectations and there was a noticeable gap between expectations and perceptions. Given the strong correlation between Quality of services and loyalty dimensions. Also, Implementation of patient loyalty program would mediate service quality influence on patient loyalty.