Determinants of patient satisfaction with public hospital services

The aim of this research is to propose and test a model of the causal relationships among the constructs of perceived service quality, consumption emotions, and satisfaction among users of public hospital services. The conceptual model proposed in this study postulates that: (a) perceived service quality is positively related to positive emotions and negatively related to negative emotions; (b) perceived service quality is positively related to patient satisfaction; and (c) positive emotions are positively related to patient satisfaction and negative emotions are negatively related to patient satisfaction. The model was tested with data from an empirical study in the Canadian public hospital setting. Data were collected from 314 respondents. The relationships between the constructs were tested using structural equation modeling by means of the EQS software. All hypothesized relationships were supported. The results confirm that perceived service quality exerts both direct and indirect effects (through positive and negative emotions) on satisfaction. The study demonstrates that emotions play an important role in determining satisfaction with hospital services.