Patient Satisfaction in the Peruvian Health Services: Validation and Application of the HEALTHQUAL Scale

During recent years, public-private partnerships (PPPs) in the health sector have been an attractive alternative for improving healthcare services in developing countries such as Peru. Therefore, it is fundamental to consider a comprehensive set of healthcare qualities, like the HEALTHQUAL scale, when we measure dimensions of healthcare service quality. Currently, no studies have applied HEALTHQUAL in Peruvian hospitals. The purposes of this study were to (1) validate and evaluate the application of the HEALTHQUAL scale to measure user satisfaction in outpatient services at two PPP hospitals in Peru; and (2) test the relationship between user satisfaction, efficiency, and loyalty. A descriptive, cross-sectional study based on the HEALTHQUAL scale was carried out at the end of 2018. The measurement items were satisfaction with healthcare personnel, satisfaction with nonhealthcare personnel, satisfaction with facilities and equipment, perception of efficiency, and trust. The scale was administered to a nonprobability sample of 250 users who attended one of two PPP hospitals-Barton and Kaelin. The application of partial least squares path modeling significantly impacted on the perceived efficiency in the items of healthcare personnel, nonhealthcare personnel, and facilities and equipment. The HEALTQUAL scale demonstrated sufficient validity and thus can be applied for measuring user satisfaction in PPP hospitals.