Determinants of Inpatients Satisfaction and Intent to Revisit Oriental Medical Hospitals

⋅Received:9 December 2014 ⋅Revised:29 December 2014 ⋅Accepted:29 December 2014 ⋅Correspondence to:Young-Joon Seo Dept. of Health Administration, Yonsei Univ. Yonsei Univ. Wonju Campus, Maeji-ri, Heungeop-myeon, Wonju-si, Gangwon-do, 220-710 Tel:+82-33-760-2415, Fax:+82-33-760-2519, E-mail:[email protected] Objectives: This study aimed to investigate the determinants of inpatients satisfaction and intent to revisit oriental medical hospitals. Methods: The independent variables of the study contain the level of satisfaction with doctors, nurses, staffs, medical fee, environment, facilities and hospital life. Each variable was measured by three to eight items about the level of satisfaction with various aspects of hospital ward life. The level of overall patient satisfaction was used as an intervening variable and the level of intent to revisit was used as a dependent variable. The sample used in this study consisted of 268 inpatients from 3 oriental medical hospitals located in Chungnam Province. Data were collected with a structured and self-administrated questionnaire and analysed using path analysis. Results: The major findings of the study were as follows : First, it was found that the 3 variables of hospital life satisfaction, ancillary staffs satisfaction, and metropolitan residents has significant positive effect on the level of overall patient satisfaction. Second, the overall satisfaction and the satisfactory level of facilities, medical fee, and quality of ward life were found to have significant effects on the level of intent to revisit of respondents. Conclusions: The results of the study indicate that oriental medical hospitals should make an effort to improve the overall satisfaction of inpatients, especially focusing on the facilities convenience, medical price, and hospital ward life which will lead to high level of intent to revisit of inpatients.