Patient Loyalty in Healthcare: The Roles of Service Quality, Trust, And Patient Satisfaction

Abstract

The main objective of this study is to examine the factors that can predict patients’ loyalty to private hospitals in Padang city, West Sumatera, Indonesia. Specifically, it aims at examining the direct and indirect relationship between service quality, trust, and patients’ satisfaction. A quantitative research design was employed; the data were collected from 320 patients in three selected private hospitals with the same categories by using purposive sampling technique. The data were analyzed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) with SmartPLS 4.0 Version. The findings of this study reveal that service quality and trust have positive and significant effects on both patient satisfaction and patient loyalty. Patient satisfaction found has a positive and significant effect on patient loyalty. In addition, patient satisfaction only mediates the effect of trust on patient loyalty. These findings highlight the importance of enhancing service quality, strengthening patient trust, and improving patient satisfaction to foster patient loyalty in private hospitals. The research highlights the important role of patient’s perception of service quality and trust in establishing patients’ satisfaction and loyalty. This indicates that patients in private hospitals in Padang are more concerned about service quality and trust than any other factors that are examined in this study. Therefore, it is highly recommended for private hospitals providers to concentrate more on delivering high-quality service by establishing a good standard of service quality to create positive patient’s perception to generate patients’ satisfaction and loyalty