Factors that Influences Patient Loyalty in Private Hospitals in Bangkok, Thailand

Abstract

Thailand has been positioned to become the medical hub of Asia due to its outstanding medical foundation including world-class medical professionals and services and increasing number of internationally accredited medical facilities. In 2021, Thailand had 60 JCI-accredited hospitals, more than any other Southeast Asian country and ranked the top fifth in the world after Saudi Arabia, China and the UAE. Overall, the private healthcare sector in Thailand is just as competitive as any other sectors of the economy since they are all competing for loyal clientele base to guarantee fixed income to justify high operating leverage nature of this industry, not to mention huge initial investment. Therefore, it would be beneficial to these hospitals to understand what constitutes patient loyalty. The purpose of this research is the study of factors influencing patient loyalty to private hospitals in Bangkok, Thailand which are First-order variables: Doctor’s Expertise (DE), Service Quality (SQ), Management System (MS), Physical Aspect (PA), Hospital Loyalty (HL), Patient Loyalty (PL); and Second-order variables: Medical Factor (MD), Non-Medical Factor (NMED). 407 samples were collected and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was used for data analysis. The result shows the value for GFI= 0.929, TLI= 0.927, CFI= 0.947, and RMSEA= 0.052. Both secondorder latent variables significantly impact consumer loyalty, which means MD that represents DE and SQ; and NMED which represents MS and PA seem to have significant effects on patient loyalty to the hospital as their p-values are < .05. If hospital operators can provide quality services and professionally manage their hospitals that are both emotionally and physically appealing, patients will be more likely to not switch over to another hospital.