Patients' expectations, satisfaction and future behavior in hospitals in Riyadh City

OBJECTIVE: The main objectives of this study are to assess patient satisfaction at both Ministry of Health and private hospitals in Riyadh city, to compare the perceived satisfaction of patients to their expectations prior to admission at both sectors, and to determine the variables that influence the patient's future intention.

METHODS: A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data from 500 patients (392 were returned fully completed) in 7 private and Ministry of Health hospitals. In addition to the descriptive statistics, paired and independent t-tests, phi and Cramers'V tests were used for the inferential statistics of the data analysis.

RESULTS: The results showed a significant difference between the general mean scores of expectation and satisfaction levels among the private sector, as well as the Ministry of Health patients. Though 12 variables were significantly less than expected among Ministry of Health patients, 6 were significantly associated with the Ministry of Health patient's future behavior. They were staff kindness, waiting time, cleanliness of the hospital, perceived nurses' quality, perceived physicians' quality, and availability of advanced medical technology. Yet, 11 variables were significantly less than expected, only 3 variables showed significant influence on the private patient's future behavior. They were availability of medicine or pharmacy, availability of advanced medical technology, and staff kindness.

CONCLUSION: This study showed the important areas stand behind the dissatisfaction of patients at both sectors. In addition the study revealed the most important area that influence patient future intention for each sector. This could help hospital managers, at both sectors, in focusing their corrective effort on such areas to improve their hospitals' service's quality.