SERVICE QUALITY OF SPECIAL MEDICAL CLINICS AFFECTING SATISFACTION OF PATIENTS : THE ROLE OF PERCEIVED TREATMENT OUTCOME AS THE MEDIATOR VARIABLE

Abstract

The objective of this research was to study perceived treatment outcome as the mediator variable in the relationship between service quality of special medical clinics (SMC) and satisfaction of patients. People who had ever used medical service in a SMC of the 3 hospitals including Siriraj Piyamaharajkarun, Ramathibodi and Chulalongkorn Hospital were selected as research sample by convenience sampling. The sample size was 128. The research tool was the unstructured, close-ended questionnaire that had passed both the validity and reliability tests, with Cronbach’s Alpha ranged from .72 to .80. Descriptive statistics was utilized in the analysis, and Multiple Regression Analysis (MRA), at .05 significance level, was applied in testing the hypotheses. Results reveal that service quality has both direct effect (.36) and indirect effect mediated by perceived treatment outcome (.12). on patient satisfaction. The coefficient of determination of the mediation model with perceived treatment outcome as the mediator variable in the relationship between service quality and satisfaction of patients is equal to 27.95%.