Modeling patient satisfaction construct in the Indian health care context

Abstract

Purpose The paper aims to establish structure of patient satisfaction construct in Indian health care settings. Design/methodology/approach The data were collected from 528 indoor patients who were seeking treatment from Government Medical College (GMC), Bakshi Nagar and Acharya Chandra Medical College and Hospital Sidra (ASCOMS), Sidhara, the two teaching and research hospitals operating in Jammu City, India. Both exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses are used to verify the scale dimensions. Findings The results reveal that patient satisfaction is a multidimensional construct comprised of four dimensions, namely: physical maintenance, physician care, nursing care and internal facilities. Among the four hypothesized models, only model 2 depicting the impact of dimensions on satisfaction showed a good fit while the other three models showed either average (model 4) or poor (models 1 and 3) fit. The analysis of the models indicates that all patient satisfaction dimensions positively and significantly contribute to patient satisfaction and which also act as an important mediating factor between the satisfaction dimensions and patient loyalty. Research limitations/implications The cross‐sectional design of the research is the limitation as all measures were collected at a single point‐of‐time. Because the findings of the study are based on overall satisfaction of the patients, no comparison is made between the degree of patient satisfaction achieved in public and private health care hospitals. Originality/value The paper measures patient satisfaction in the Indian context.