BENEVOLENCE OR COMPETENCE WHICH IS MORE IMPORTANT FOR PATIENT LOYALTY?

Year 2019, Volume: 5 Issue: 9, 76 - 84, 27.10.2019

Mahmut Akbolat , Mustafa Amarat , Özgün Ünal , Elif Saba Sütlü

Abstract

In an increasingly competitive environment, health
institutions and organizations are moving towards the concept of a loyal
patient, whose importance is increasing and is thought to be of great benefit
to the institutions, but patient loyalty has not been studied extensively
through the physicians who make up the majority of the process. In addition,
there are no studies in the literature on the helpfulness and competence of
doctors who are thought to influence patient loyalty. For this reason, it was
aimed to investigate the relationship between benevolence and competence of
doctors and patient loyalty. The aim of this study is to measure the effect of
doctor-benevolence behaviors and doctor competencies on patient loyalty. The
sample of the study consisted of 207 people who received service from a public
or private hospital within the last year. A questionnaire was used as a data
collection tool. The questionnaire used consists of four parts and the first
part consists of three questions aiming to measure socio-demographic
characteristics. In the second and third sections, the scales developed by
Nguyen (2010) aiming to measure the physicians' competencies and benevolence
were used. In the last chapter, the patient loyalty scale developed by Nguyen
and LeBlanc (2001) was used. As a result of the correlation analysis, there was
a positively strong relationship between the proficiency levels of the doctors
and the level of benevolence, whereas these two variables were positively
related to patient loyalty. When the effect coefficients were examined, doctor
benolovence (β = 0.404) affects patient loyalty more than doctor's competence
(β = 0.185). As a result, although the effect of benevolence and competence on
loyalty is different, it can be said that the variables are far from being
substitutes. The patients will not only want to be treated by the doctors who
show the benevolent behavior, but also the doctor’s competence.

Keywords

Doctor benevolence, doctor’s competence, patient loyalty

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