Hospitality and Customer Service Perceptions: Perspectives of Thai Public and Private Hospitals

Abstract

Patient satisfaction and its determining factors are important topics in modern hospital management. This study aims to assess the level of patient satisfaction and service quality through application of the SERVQUAL model. The study makes use of primary data collected from the patients of five departments of 2 hospitals, one public and one private hospital. Responses showed that patient satisfaction at the public hospital was most heavily influenced by reliability, assurance, and empathy. At the private hospital, reliability, assurance, tangibility, and responsiveness were the main determinants. All in all, employee behavior (assurance) seems to be the most important driver of patient satisfaction at a public hospital setting service (reliability) in a private hospital session.