Designing a model for measuring customer satisfaction in medical and educational centers Download PDF

Background: Creation and implementation of systems to measure customer satisfaction as the most important indicator to improve performance is considered as one of the basic needs of today’s organizations, especially in the health care system. Objective: The aim of this study was to design a model to measure customer satisfaction in medical and educationalcenters. Methods and Materials: This study identified factors that influence customer satisfaction using a systematic review of the literature and focus group discussions with clients, staffs, administrators and physicians and it is presented in the form of customer satisfaction using a panel of experts. As well as assessment questionnaire of customer satisfaction was designed to evaluate the status of medical and educationalcenters in Tabriz. Results: The offered model has two aspects: A) Factors related to the patient, including demographic, socio-economic variables, expectations, health status; B) Factors related to health system including quality of service, service features, hospital characteristics, satisfaction with the service provider. The mean of patient satisfaction in hospitals in our study was 75.09% (SD = 12.1) and its minimum was 36.46% and its maximum was 98.96%. Conclusion: Health policy makers and hospital administrators need to attract the satisfaction of both internal and external customers and increasingly identify their needs in order to improve their performance. Satisfaction is subject to change over time. Therefore, it is suggested that managers continually monitor and control it. Finally, the concept of satisfaction is multidimensional and subjective and the impact of each factor in each hospital is specific for it and it depends on culture, hospital’s specialty, demographic, economic and social variables, etc.