Determinants of Patient Satisfaction and Intent to Revisit at National University Hospitals in Korea

국립대학교병원의 환자만족도 및 재이용 의사 결정요인

This study purports to investigate the determinants of patient satisfaction and intent to revisit at national university hospitals in Korea. A total of 8 independent variables for outpatients, 9 independent variables for inpatients, and an intervening variable of overall patient satisfaction were selected through literature review. The independent variables for outpatients contain the level of satisfaction with physicians, nurses, ancillary staff, administrative procedure, medical cost, physical environment, facility convenience. and health recovery. With regard to the independent variables for inpatients, the quality of ward services was added to those of outpatients. Each variable contains 3 to 8 items measuring the level of satisfaction with various aspects of the variable. The sample used in this study consisted of 879 outpatients and 821 inpatients. Data were collected with interview survey and analyzed using path analysis. The major findings of the study are as follows: 1) The following variables have significantly positive effect on the intent to revisit of outpatients: health recovery, overall satisfaction, satisfaction with physicians, and ancillary staff. 2) The following variables have significantly positive effect on the intent to revisit of inpatients: health recovery, satisfaction with nurses and physicians, overall satisfaction, and administrative procedure. 3) The following variables of admission procedure, satisfaction with ancillary staff, facility convenience, quality of ward services were found to have significantly positive effect only on the level of overall satisfaction, even though they do not have significant total effect on the intent to revisit. The results of the study indicate that national university hospitals in Korea should make an effort to improve the satisfactory level of patients with clinical outcome, services provided by physicians, nurses, and ancillary staff, and the quality of administrative procedure for enhancing the intent to revisit of patients.