What determines patient loyalty in health services? An analysis to assist service quality management

Abstract

Changes in the global scenario of healthcare segment have influenced the organizational dynamics. The patients have more options of service providers, and regulatory agencies have demanded the maximization of service quality, improvement of performance indexes, and expansion of service offerings. The purpose of this study is to identify which variables affect client loyalty in relation to the services provided by medicals and dentals clinics, analyzing how these measures can be used to group patients to identify the variables that are decisive for such classification. So, this study evaluated loyalty of the patients through 21 indicators. Data multivariate analysis was used to identify latent factors, to verify how customers could be classified and to identify the most relevant variables. Two latent factors were identified; three clusters by grouping them into loyalty levels and eight indicators. The determinants of satisfaction, brand value, affective commitment, loyalty intent and perceived value were the most relevant for classification. This study contributes to the analysis of the influence of determinants on loyalty intentions. The classification function can be used in health segments to predict patient behavior, and can guide managers in adapting important factors to patient loyalty.

Keywords:

• patient loyalty
• healthcare service
• clustering
• discriminant analysis

Acknowledgements

This study was financed in part by the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - Brasil (CAPES) - Finance Code 001, the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico – Brasil (CNPQ) and the Fundação de Amparo à Ciência e Tecnologia de Pernambuco (FACEPE).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).