Effect of Relationships’ Quality on Patients’ Loyalty in Selected State Hospitals

Background: Given the competitive environment prevailing in the market,service organizations are looking for loyal customers and hospitals are noexception. In the meantime, attention to relationships’ quality and establishmentof long term relationships have an important role. The objective of the presentstudy is to examine the effect of relationships’ quality on loyalty of patients inselected state hospitals.Methods: The present cross-sectional research was conducted in 2014 inselected state hospitals of Arak and Yazd. The population consisted of 160patients in the selected hospitals. Simple random sampling was conducted tochoose participants. Data were collected through two questionnaires; a part ofHon and Gruning’s measurement of relationships questionnaire with fourdimensions (satisfaction, trust, commitment, and mutual control) and loyaltyquestions as a part of the Parasuraman et al.’s behavioral tendencies with onedimension (loyalty dimension). Data were analyzed with SPSS19 using Spearmancorrelation coefficient and regression.Results: Results from Spearman correlation indicated a positive and significantrelationship between relationships quality and loyalty (r = 0.722, P-value =0.001). In addition, results from regression indicated that 60% of the variance ofpatients’ loyalty is explained by satisfaction.Conclusion: Findings revealed that strategies to improve the quality ofrelationships with patients could lead to loyalty in patients.

Keywords:

Hospital , Relationship Quality , Loyalty