Impact of Health Service Quality on Patient Loyalty at King Khalid University Hospital in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Aims: Severe competition exists among the medical service providers at Saudi Arabia. The competition has propelled hospitals to look beyond the idea of providing just a service and has oriented them to consider the customer loyalty, which stems out of service quality, as an important competitiveness factor. Large-sized hospitals can demonstrate successful performance when they satisfy the quality of medical services expected by patients. This paper investigates the influence of medical services quality on the extent of patient loyalty. Methodology: For the purpose of this research, an empirical investigation was conducted nearby 293 patients of King Khalid University Hospital, within the period from 01-03-2016 until 30-04-2016. A questionnaire was designed as an instrument to collect the data. Hypotheses were tested using a Multiple Regression Analysis with SPSS. Results: Findings showed that medical service quality affects positively patient loyalty, especially the service tangibility dimension perceived as the most significant by patients.  Conclusion: Based on the results of this study, marketing implications have been formulated for large-sized hospitals to offer patients effective medical services. A continually improvement of tangible aspect of healthcare services is important but not sufficient, it should be supported by an implementation of a marketing information system to enhance healthcare services quality at lower cost.