Assessment of the Value of Health Provider Expectations: An Attempt to Fully Conceptualize Patient Satisfaction

摘要

This paper reports the results of an investigation to assess the value (validity and reliability) of health provider expectations in an attempt to broaden the construct “patient satisfaction”. Data were collected from 25 health providers through a 16-item Likert-type survey. The variable “expectation” was measured by factors such as cleanliness, privacy, healthcare, space on hospital wards and adequacy of food serv ings. The data were analyzed and assessed using exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. The results indicate that 11 of 16 factors loaded separately onto three components. However, only component two: (tidiness and cleanliness) comprising items 10, 15 and 16, proved to be significant (Average Variance Extracted = 0.512, Construct Reliability = 0.740; Cronbach’s Alpha = 0.687). Furthermore, it was confirmed that item 15 was the strongest contributor to component two (Beta = 1.020). To test sampling adequacy and adequacy of correlation for factor loadings, Kaiser-Mayer-Olkin and Bartlett’s Test of Sphericity respectively were performed. Despite sampling inadequacy (0.440 < 0.60), the analysis proceeded owing to the fact that the result of Bartlett’s test was statistically significant (p = 0.006). This paper concludes that the instrument should be modified and retested using larger samples of healthcare providers before a broad epistemological framework of patient satisfaction can be hypothesized.