The effect of process quality on patient satisfaction from patient's perspective in health institutions

Patient satisfaction is a crucial issue for healthcare institutions where competition is increasing day by day. In this respect, service delivery processes are of great importance in improving patient satisfaction. The way to increase patient satisfaction in healthcare institutions is through the provision of quality services. In order to increase the quality of service delivery, service delivery processes need to be continuously improved. The aim of this study is to reveal the effect of process quality in health institutions on patient satisfaction. The universe of the study consists of individuals whose residence is in the Marmara Region and who have received in-patient health services from any health institution in the last year. In the study, individuals residing in Istanbul, Bursa, Kocaeli, Balıkesir, Tekirdağ and Sakarya were selected using the cluster sampling technique in sample selection, and the number of individuals to be included in the sample was determined according to the population of the province. 932 individuals participated in the study. In this study, a questionnaire form consisting of the process quality scale developed by the researcher, the patient satisfaction scale developed by Yeşilyurt (2018) and the socio-demographic characteristics of the participants were used as data collection tools. The collection date of data is from 12 June to 30 October 2020. The validity and reliability analyses of the data were conducted, and data were analyzed using descriptive statistical methods, path analysis, correlation analysis, one-way variance analysis, and independent sample T-test. According to the findings of the study, there is a significant relationship between patient satisfaction and patient admission, discharge process, diagnosis and treatment process, communication process and support services process. In addition, although the patient admission and discharge process, diagnosis and treatment process, communication process and support services process have a positive effect on patient satisfaction, it is found that the human resources process does not have a positive effect. Despite the fact that the marital status of the participants and the ownership of the hospital where the service is received belongs to the public or private ownership, there is no significant difference in the quality and satisfaction of the process; educational status and monthly income cause significant differences in both scales and all dimensions. In addition, although there is a difference in all factors except the support services process according to age groups, the Patient Admission and Discharge Process differs only by gender. As a result, the quality of service processes affects patient satisfaction. For this reason, it is of great importance to improve the quality of service delivery processes to increase patient satisfaction in a competitive environment, ensure the continuity of patients receiving service from the hospital and gain new service users.