A Correlation Study between Patient Satisfaction and Patient Loyalty at a Tertiary Care Hospital in Kerala

Background & Objectives: Patient satisfaction has a considerable impact on patient loyalty to healthcare services at the hospital. In the competitive health care market, it is important to gain patients' satisfactions, which in turn increase their return and loyalty. Therefore, this study evaluated the effect of patients' satisfaction with service quality and their loyalty. Methods: A cross sectional descriptive study among 125 in - patients was done using an expert validated questionnaire. Results / Discussion: The In - patient satisfaction was 4.14 which means it was good and the patients were very loyal to the hospital with a score of 3.99. A very strong positive correlation of value 0.523 was found between patient satisfaction and loyalty in the tertiary care hospital. Conclusion: Patient loyalty is a strategic service goal of private hospitals in order to retain and/or expand the market. Patient satisfaction is the effective way to achieve patient loyalty. If private - sector administrators and health - care providers understand which aspects of service quality are most important to their patients and have mechanisms to prioritize and ensure that these are met, patient satisfaction and willingness to use the facility again will be improved.