Linking Service Quality, Patients’ Satisfaction and Behavioral Intentions: An Investigation on Private Healthcare in Malaysia

The purpose of this paper is to examine the association between perceived service quality, patients’ satisfaction and behavioral intentions in the private health care industry in Malaysia, a developing country. Hospital outpatients were selected as respondents for this study using the convenience sampling technique. Survey questionnaires were distributed to 300 hospital outpatients who had received health care treatment at the private hospitals in 2010 and 2011. Two hundred and seventy-three (273) completed data was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Multiple regressions were employed to test the hypotheses. The results indicated that service quality dimensions positively affected the intention behaviors. All service factors had positive relationships with patients’ satisfaction. However, only three dimensions of service quality (tangibles, assurance and empathy) showed significant relationships with intention. In addition, tangibles, reliability and assurance had significant relationship with satisfaction. Assurance dimension was considered very important in influencing both satisfaction and behavioral intentions of the patients. Satisfaction had strong positive effects on intention behavior. In short, both service quality dimensions and patients’ satisfaction were positively related to behavioral intentions. Thus, strong managerial orientations should be introduced in the private hospitals in order to deliver a high quality service, to increase patient satisfaction, and consequently encourage intentions to revisit and recommend to others.