의료서비스 이용에서 보호자의 서비스품질인식이 환자의 서비스품질인식 및 구매행동의도에 미치는 영향

Effects of guardians' service quality perception on the service perception and behavioral intention of patients in healthcare service

In this study, we examined the effects of guardians' service quality perception(G-SQP) on patients' service quality perception(P-SQP) leading to patients' behavioral intention(P-BI) and the effects of G-SQP on guardians' behavioral intention(G-BI). To investigate the causalities of the variables, we collected national wide samples of 144 hospitals, 1456 patients and 1455 guardians of the patients and analyzed 1146 guardian-patient coupled cases refined with prerequisites such as missing value, outliers, normality and covariance conditions. Followed were contributions of the present study. First, G-SQP was a predictor of P-SQP. Second, in the first contribution statement, there was no statistically significant difference between inpatient and outpatient group. Third, proven was that G-SQP was a predictor of G-BI. Fourth, verified was that P-SQP was a predictor of P-BI. Fifth, G-SQP was a predictor of P-SQP being led to P-BI that meant P-SQP had a mediating role between G-SQP and P-BI. Since the guardians' perception affected patients' buying decision, the present study implied service managers of hospital settings should pay attention to guardians' perception of service quality as well as patients'. With such strategy, hospitals could improve financial performance in long-term.