Customer satisfaction in health: A research in public hospitals

3 CMJ Original Research March 2020, Volume: 42, Number: 1 Cumhuriyet Tıp Dergisi (Cumhuriyet Medical Journal) 3-8 http://dx.doi.org/10.7197/cmj.vi.711086 Customer satisfaction in public hospitals health: A research in Sağlıkta müşteri memnuniyeti: Kamu hastanelerinde bir araştırma Mustafa Burak Karagöz1, Enis Baha Biçer2, Derya Fatma Biçer3 1Ph.D. Student, Sivas Cumhuriyet University, Institute of Social Sciences, Healthcare Management Department, Sivas, Turkey 2Sivas Cumhuriyet University, Faculty of Health Sciences, Department of Healthcare Management, Sivas, Turkey 3Sivas Cumhuriyet University, Faculty of Economic and Administrative Sciences, Department of Business Administration, Sivas, Turkey Corresponding author: Enis Baha Biçer, PhD, Sivas Cumhuriyet University, Faculty of Health Sciences, Department of Healthcare Management, Sivas, Turkey E-mail: Received/Accepted: March 29, 2020 /May 13, 2020 Conflict of interest: There is not a conflict of interest. SUMMARY Objective: Hospitals constitute the widest part of treatment services, and it is important to measure the satisfaction of the customers, i.e patients, from the service they received in terms of these institutions in order to improve themselves. The purpose of this study is also defined the satisfaction of inpatient in public hospitals (secondary and tertiary) in Sivas province. Method: Patients are hospitalized in Sivas Numune Hospital and Sivas Cumhuriyet University Practice and Research Hospital consisted of the population and sample of the study . The survey method was used as a data collection tool, and the data of the study were collected from 697 inpatients between 1 November 2018 and 31 January 2019. The data were evaluated in the statistical package program with descriptive statistics, “independent sample T test” and “Anova test”. Results: It was found that the satisfaction levels of the patients hospitalized in Sivas Numune hospital, those treated in the internal clinics, men and primary school graduates were statistically significantly higher than the other groups. Conclusions: It can be said that the patients are more satisfied with the health services they receive from the secondary level public hospital. Keywords: Healthcare management, costumer satisfaction, public hospitals Mustafa Burak Karagöz Enis Baha Biçer Derya Fatma Biçer ORCID IDs of the authors: M.B.K. 0000-0002-6067-9700 E.B.B. 0000-0002-1624-4988 D.F.B. 0000-0002-3359-1236 ÖZET Amaç: Tedavi hizmetlerin en geniş ayağını hastaneler oluşturmakta ve bu kurumlar açısından hastaların aldıkları hizmetten memnuniyetlerini ölçmek kurumların kendilerini geliştirmesi açısından önem arz etmektedir. Bu çalışmanın amacı da Sivas ilinde ki kamu hastanelerinde yatan hasta memnuniyetinin belirlenmesidir. Yöntem: Çalışmanın evren ve örneklemini Sivas Numune Hastanesi ve Sivas Cumhuriyet Üniversitesi Uygulama ve Araştırma Hastanesinde yatan hastalar oluşturmaktadır. Veri toplama aracı olarak anket yöntemi kullanılmış olup çalışmanın verileri 1 Kasım 2018 -31 Ocak 2019 arasında 697 yatan hastadan toplanmıştır. Veriler SPSS 21 programında tanımlayıcı istatistikler, independent sample t testi ve Anova ile değerlendirilmiştir. Bulgular: Sivas Numune hastanesinde yatan hastaların, dahili kliniklerde tedavi görenlerin, erkeklerin ve ilköğretim mezunlarının memnuniyet düzeylerinin diğer gruplara göre istatiksel olarak anlamlı derecede daha yüksek olduğu saptanmıştır. Sonuç: Hastaların ikinci basamak kamu hastanesinden aldıkları sağlık hizmetlerinde daha memnun olduğu söylenebilir. Anahtar sözcükler: Sağlık yönetimi, müşteri tatmini, kamu hastaneleri 4 INTRODUCTION Customer satisfaction, which is one of the main outcomes of health institutions, can generally be defined as “meeting the expectations of customers or providing services above these demands and expectations. As can be understood from the definition given, two factors determine customer satisfaction. The first factor that determines customer satisfaction is customer expectations. The expectations that can be defined as the scientific, managerial and behavioral features that customers seek or want to see in healthcare institutions differ according to the customers' age, gender, education level, social cultural characteristics, and past experiences about health services and health institutions 1. The second factor that determines the customer satisfaction is the sensations of the customers related to the service they receive. Sensations are measured based on the individual's opinions or evaluations related to the services they receive and the service production process. The sensation factor differs by the characteristics of the customers and their past experiences about health institutions 2. The customers who take advantage of the health service evaluates the services, feel satisfied or dissatisfied and, according to this, even make a decision to go to the same istitution or not 3. In other words, patient’s satisfaction, is a concept that includes the subjective and variable sensations of those who get health service. In other words, evaluating differences between expectations and experiences of patients from hospital services shows patient satisfaction 4, 5. Hospital services require a team service. Quality service is the responsibility of all staff working in the hospital. If there is a disruption or disorder in a part of the service or in one of the service groups, customers' perception of these disruptions also affect other areas and affect the hospital image. No matter how technology and technique develop, the quality of service will be low if the owned workforce does not have sufficient qualifications. Healthcare personnel, who are in direct contact with patients/ customers at every stage of service delivery, have a great impact on patients/ customers' perspective on the hospital and their satisfaction with the services 6, 7. Determining customer satisfaction, which is an important indicator of the quality of health services, is of great importance in the service improvements of institutions and in evaluating the outcomes of health services in general 5,8. Today, it is necessary to determine customer satisfaction and increase customer satisfaction in public hospitals that are in competition with private sectors. In this direction, the aim of this study is to determine customer satisfaction from the perspective of in-patients in the secondary and tertiary public hospitals in Sivas city center. MATERIAL AND METHODS The purpose of this descriptive and crosssectional study is to determine the satisfaction levels of patients hospitalized in Sivas Numune Hospital and Sivas Cumhuriyet University Practice and Research Hospital and reveal their comparative analysis on the basis of hospitals. The research population consisted of two hospitalized patients, and was conducted with patients hospitalized in the services that agreed to participate in the study without any sample selecti (...truncated)