Hospitals tend to provide uniform service to patients despite their various demands they may have due to the risks of disease stages or the uncertainties in terms of information of treatment stages. To identify service factors that patients consider to be important depending on their individual circumstances and provide effective contextual service models for different service needs, the study conducted a survey on the importance of and the satisfaction with service quality.
The study surveyed 286 patients and caregivers on importance and satisfaction regarding 17 service factors at the outpatient clinic of cancer centers at the university hospitals in 5 major cities in Korea.
Based on the risks of the disease and uncertainties in terms of information of treatment stages, the cancer patients were grouped into 4 categories; diagnosis stage, low-risk treatment stage, high-risk treatment stage and stabilization stage.
This study revealed that there are significant differences in terms of satisfaction with different service factors depending on cancer patients’ cases. Depending on the patient’s situation, the importance of and satisfaction with service factors were ranked. These factors were categorized into 4 groups from a managerial perspective; ‘keep it up’, ‘focus here’, ‘low priority’ and ‘overdone’. Thus, this study provides an effective healthcare service model that can accommodate different service needs of patients.
