Obstetrics Patient Loyalty: A Study of Malaysian Private Hospitals

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine the path of obstetrics service quality and patient loyalty. The service quality encompasses doctors’ knowledge, nurse professionalism, diagnostic procedures, perceived price and healthscape. This study is found to be of interest because there have been limited studies conducted in Malaysia concerning patient loyalty for obstetrics services in private hospitals. The sample size comprises 419 patients from ten private hospitals in five states of Peninsular Malaysia. Data were collected and analysed using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). The results indicate that diagnostic procedures, doctor’s knowledge and perceived price, have a significant positive relationship with patient loyalty. In contrast, nurses’ professionalism and healthscape had no significant impact on patient loyalty. Further, the Importance-Performance Matrix Analysis (IPMA) results contribute as an insight for the management to overcome and improve on identified areas with low performance. The findings of this study are endorsed by the IPMA that the importance and performance of diagnostic procedures are high in contributing to patient loyalty for the obstetrics service in Malaysia.