• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.45-69
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• 2004

The purpose of this study is to identify the nature of the inpatient service quality of national university hospital, and based on that, to examine the relationship of hospital inpatient's perceived quality, overall satisfaction, customer loyalty(intention of revisiting, intention of oral transmitting). To carry out these objectives, first we analyzed the dimensions of inpatient care service quality using SERVQUAL scale. The SERVQUAL scale is based on the gap theory, that is, the difference of patients' expectations and the actually received medical care service in hospital. On the basis of this theory, we measured the inpatient's perceived service quality, overall patient satisfaction and customer loyalty. Data were collected by self-administered questionnaires at a 809 bed national university hospital. These questionnaires measuring the service quality were distributed to 400 inpatients. The data samples are 347 cases in final. The response rate was 86.8%. Firstly, to categorize inpatient service quality in hospital, the factor analysis was performed on 48 items. The reliability and validity of these items was evaluated. Finally to explore the relationship of service quality, overall satisfaction, and customer loyalty, the multiple regression and logistic regression analysis are used. This study shows firstly, the dimension of inpatient service quality was categorized into 7 dimensions, that is, kindness, medical service, nurse caring, environment, facilities, appropriateness and access. Secondly, the reliability and validity of inpatient service quality items was satisfied. Thirdly, as a result of multiple regression analysis, the effect of inpatient's perceived service quality, especially, nurse caring(P<0.01), environment (P<0.01), facilities, appropriateness and access variables(P<0.05), on overall satisfaction was statistically significant. Lastly, in case of the effect on customer loyalty as a intension of oral transmitting, medical service(P<0.05), environment(P<0.01) and overall satisfaction(P<0.01) are statistically significant. Also, in case of intension of revisiting, medical service, environment, access, and overall satisfaction variables are significant factors. In conclusion, to maintain the satisfaction and customer loyalty on national university hospitals, the efforts to improve the inpatient service quality, especially, environment, medical service, and access factors might be needed.

• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.123-151
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• 2002

The objective of this study is to analyze the causal relationship of hospital inpatient's perceived quality, overall satisfaction, service value, and future intention to revisit. To carry out this objective, first we analyzed the dimensions of inpatient care service quality using SERVQUAL scale. The SERVQUAL scale is based on the gap theory, that is, the difference of patients' expectations and the actually received medical care service in hospital. On the basis of this theory, we measured the inpatient's perceived service quality and overall patient satisfaction. Data was gathered from a self-administered questionnaire at a 980 bed university hospital in Inchon City. These questionnaire measuring the service quality were distributed to 250 inpatients. The response rate was 66.4%. A total of 166 questionnaires was finally analyzed. To categorize medical service quality, the factor analysis was performed on 42 items. The reliability and validity of these items was evaluated. Finally to test 6 hypotheses, we analyzed the causal relationship of service quality, overall satisfaction, service value, and intention to revisit through the structural equation modeling(SEM). The major results of this study are as follows. First, the dimension of inpatient service quality was categorized into 7 dimensions, that is, personal caring, communication, access, physical environment, facilities and equipment, cleanliness, appropriateness and health status. Second, the reliability and validity of inpatient service quality items was satisfied. Third, as a result of structural equation modeling, the effect of inpatient's perceived service quality on overall satisfaction, service value, and intention to revisit was statistically significant. And total effect on intention to revisit as the core endogenous variable was perceived service quality(1.100), patient satisfaction(0.006), and service value(0.605).

• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.44-68
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• 2008

The purpose of this study is to identify which factors of medical service quality were considered important by patients based on survey on eight hospitals located in Seoul. We analyzed the difference in impact of health service quality factors between the two groups with short and long inpatient days. In addition, we analyzed which service factors affected the customer satisfaction more differently across the inpatient groups. We found that patient satisfaction was not different between the two groups with short and long inpatient days. But the two groups showed different priority orders of medical service factors that affect patient satisfaction. In the group with long inpatient days, the order of medical service factors are cleanness, speciality, process. In the group with short stay, important factors are speciality, cleanness and convenience of facilities. These findings imply that hospitals should set up different marketing strategies across the different inpatients groups.

• International Journal of Quality Innovation
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.77-87
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• 2009

The main aim of the paper is to provide an empirical analysis on patient satisfaction as an indicator of service quality in Malaysian public hospitals. Self-administered questionnaires were administered to patients by convenience sampling. Two sets of questionnaires were used, one for inpatient and another one set for outpatient. Selection of hospitals was made according to states in Peninsular Malaysia. 23 hospitals covering all state level hospitals, the National Referral Centre and selected district hospitals were chosen as respondent hospitals. Two dimensions of service quality emerged, namely clinical and physical dimension of service. Both outpatient and inpatient were found to be more satisfied with clinical dimension of service than physical dimension. For outpatient satisfaction, there was positive correlation between waiting time and patient satisfaction. Patient satisfaction was also found to be higher in the smaller district hospitals than in the larger state hospitals. For clinical dimension of service, patients were satisfied with the services of doctors and nurses, while for physical dimension of service, patients were satisfied with the cleanliness of the facilities. The ability of the research to be conducted by random sampling was inhibited by the reluctance of patients to cooperate, which led to the use of convenience sampling. Studies have also shown that patients are reluctant to express their feelings on services provided by their caregivers. The study provides primary data for a nationwide study on patient satisfaction in Malaysian public hospitals, for both inpatient and outpatient.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.1-17
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• 2008

The measurement and management of patient satisfaction has become one of the key issues in the last two decades. Hospitals must thoroughly understand the needs of their customers and design products and health services that meet and exceed their expectations. The importance-performance analysis(IPA) is a widely used analytical technique that yields strategies for managing customer satisfaction in a variety of applications. IP A is a two-dimensional grid based on customer-perceived importance of quality attributes and attribute performance. Depending on the interplay of these two dimensions, four strategies can be derived. The aim of this study is to develop the management strategies for improving patient satisfaction in university hospitals using the I-P analysis. The attributes on inpatient service quality in 4 university hospitals was investigated using the Martilla and James(l977)' s a mean adjusted I-P grid where the axes of the grid cross at the average rating point of all items. The patient satisfaction questionnaires were completed by 600 hospital inpatients. The main statistical methods are path analysis and IPA with SPSS 12.0 and AMOS 4.0 statistical softwares. The two attributes, physician and medical service, administrative staff kindness attributes position in first quadrant(Keep Up the Good domain). The nurse and nursing service attributes position in second quadrant(Possible Overkill domain). The two attributes, convenience of check-in service, facilities and physical environment position in third quadrant(Low Priority domain). Finally the quality of inpatient service(food etc.) attributes position in fourth quadrant(Concentrate Here domain). These findings show various implications on the development of strategies in university hospitals in the future. It was determined that quality of inpatient service(food etc.) need to concentrate more on investments. These investments include a taste, price, proper provision of food service and quick response of pain management. A low priority was given to investment in streamlining the check-in process of inpatient and hospital facilities and physical environment in the long run.

• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.23-42
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• 2012

The purpose of this study is to identify the inpatient service quality at mental hospitals and to examine the effect of service quality on patient's overall satisfaction and customer loyalty. Data collection was done through conducting a survey of inpatients in three mental hospitals located in Chungnam, Korea using self administered questionnaire. The questionnaire included the modified version of 'service satisfaction scale for psychiatric patients' invented by Chul Kwon Kim and other members, which consists of five dimension of service quality: staff attitude, treatment quality, ward environment, access/cost and ward rule. Total 236 questionnaires were gathered and 219 were used for analysis. The data was analyzed by using version SAS9.2 and path analysis model was applied to test our hypothesis. As a result, the four factors of service (staff attitude, treatment quality, ward environment and ward rule) were extracted, which counted for 62.89% of the common variance. Moreover, Cronbach Alpha showed relatively high internal consistency of answer, all exceeding 0.6. According to the study, ward environment and treatment quality turned out to have direct influence on the patient's satisfaction. In addition, staff attitude and overall satisfaction directly influenced the customer loyalty while ward environment and ward rule indirectly had influence using overall satisfaction as a medium. In conclusion, in order to enhance the satisfaction and customer loyalty in mental hospitals, efforts in improving environmental service quality in particular is highly demanded.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Fundamentals of Nursing
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.259-271
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• 1996

This reserch has been done in order to improve quality of nursing and medical service. In order to improve those qualities the study has been done to know inpatient perception of kindness and meaning of kindness which patients receive from nurse and also what effect inpatient have when they experience kindness from nurse. The subjects were 454 people who admitted in K Hospital. Time period was from October to December 1995. This survey has been done by personal interview with a written questionnaire. Analysis of data has been done by $X^2-test$ and percentage. The results of the research may be summarized as follows. 1. The inpatients perception of kindness on nurse were explanation(26.8%), tolerance(16.3%), warm-heartedness(12.8%), interest(9.5%), ability(8.4%), confidence(6.4%), respect(4.0%), support(2.65%). 2. In order to find out general moaning of kindness, study classified by age, sex, education, job, experience of hospitalization, inpatient ward. As a result of $X^2-test$, no special meaning of kindness was presented in inpatient perception of kindness. 3. Contents kindness which inpatient experienced were, warm-heartedness(23%), understanding(18.1%), interest(17.8%), ability(12.8%), tolerance(5.7%), confidence(2.6%), 4. Over half of subjects(59.1%) answered stability to effect on kindness of Nurse. Next are self-confidence(7.9%), respect(5.3%), confidence(4.6%), warm-heartedness(3.5%), understanding(2.6%). According to above results inpatient feels that meaning of kindness were explanation, tolerance, warm-heartedness. This meaning has no distinctive difference other than consistent meaning. Likewise, inpatient experience about contents of kindness is similar to meaning of kindness. As a result of this research, which show that kindness of nurse gives patient stability, respect and confidence, we would kindness is important for recovery of inpatient. Therefore, this research outcome could be able to help to improve quality of nursing and medical service.

• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
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• v.10 no.6
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• pp.943-951
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• 2005

The purposes of this study were to analyze the gap between foodservice personnel and inpatients, to urge foodservice providers to reconsider by identifying the problems in service delivery for customer satisfaction, and to deduce the priority for foodservice quality improvement. The results of this study can be summarized as follows : the average perception score of personnel (4.32 out of 5) was higher than that of customers (3.90). In particular, the customers' perceptions of 17 attributes, which included 'removal service of tray by foodservice personnel', 'nutrition and health-related information service', 'handling inpatient's complaint ASAP', 'delicious meals' and 'salty enough meals' and so on, was significantly lower than personnel's. Both service providers and customers perceived that 'personnel attitude' was the highest and 'meal quality' was the lowest among the 4 factors, but there was significant difference on 'meal quality'(p < .001), 'customer reception' (p < .001) and 'personnel attitude' (p < .05) between the two groups. As a results of quadrant analysis, 'removal service of tray by foodservice personnel', 'handling inpatient's complaints ASAP' and 'meal service according to doctor's orders were categorized into Quadrant A with meaning of high personnel's perceptions and low customers'. Therefore service providers have to perceive the gap between the two viewpoints and grant priority to these attributes in improving foodservice qualify. (Korean J Community Nutrition 10(6) $943\∼951$, 2005)

• Journal of The Korea Institute of Healthcare Architecture
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.57-69
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• 2017

Purpose: This study aims to emphasize interrelation between healthcare policies, design standards and hospital architecture of the United States since 1950s; to examine spatial characteristics of inpatient care facilities through case studies; and to consider the social implication of these spatial changes. Methods: In this study, reviewing the overall healthcare system, design standards and inpatient care facilities of the United States since 1950s, a total of five inpatient care facilities, one for each period, were selected in order to analyze the spatial characteristics. The spatial maps of Space Syntax were employed for analyzing five case studies. Results: The distance between the nursing station, the support service, and inpatient room were getting closer. The spatial structure of inpatient care facilities is transformed from tree structures to annular tree structures. This result shows that the efficiency between patient, staff and support service is higher and the depth of the spaces is getting deeper, which indicates that efficiency for improving healthcare quality affect the spatial structure of inpatient care facilities. Implications: In the future, if Korea's health policy is changed to a demand-oriented health care policy, this conclusion predicts medical planning of hospital will be focused on the efficiency.

• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.59-66
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• 2016

This study analyzed the relationship between the convergence performance in hospital. This study examined previous research and calculated centralized index using diagnosis related groups. In addition, multiple regression analysis was used based on LOS in order to understand the effect of focused strategy which quality of medical inpatient service. The centralized level was examined by analyzing national inpatient sample data using 'Internal Herfindahl-Hirshman index' This study is significant because it reviewed medical inpatient service quality by measuring hospital centralized level which has been rarely studied before Korea.