ISSN: 2222-6990
Open access
Medical tourism is defined as travelling to a different country to receive medical treatment at an affordable cost, and have access to higher-quality healthcare or obtain specialised treatment which they would not receive in their home country. Such medical treatments may involve therapeutic intervention for cancer and cardiac matters through dental and aesthetic surgery. Although medical tourism is quite popular in Malaysia, there are limited studies that examine foreign patients’ satisfaction towards services they received from hospitals. Therefore, the aim of this study is to examine customer satisfaction who seek medical treatment in Malaysia specifically in the Klang Valley private hospitals. This study applies a survey design with questionnaires and 100 sets of questionnaires were distributed to foreign patients in 6 private hospitals and the data were analysed using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS). The data were analysed and the results indicated that there is a significant relationship between service quality provided by the hospitals and foreign patients’ satisfaction. The implications of the study will be useful for practitioners, academicians, and policy makers. Finally, the limitations of the study were addressed and recommendations for future studies are also provided.
Andaleeb, S. S. (1998). Determinants of customer satisfaction with hospitals: A managerial model. International Journal of Healthcare Quality Assurance, 11, 181?187.
Aditi, N. (2009). Factors affecting patient satisfaction and healthcare quality. International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance, 22(4), 366 – 381. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/09526860910964834.
Baalbaki, I., Ahmed, Z. U., Pashtenko, V. H., & Makarem, S. (2008). Patient satisfaction with healthcare delivery systems. International Journal of Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Marketing, 2, 47?62.
Boshoff, C., & Gray, B. (2004). The relationship between service quality, customer satisfaction and buying intentions in the private hospital industry. South African Journal of Business Management, 35(4), 27-37.
Cruez, A. F. (2008). Medical tourists coming to Malaysia in thousands. News Strait Times. Retrieved from http://www.malaysiahealthcare.com/04082008.htm.
Crooks, V. A., Kingsbury, P., Snyder, J., & Johnston, R. (2010). What is known about the patient’s experience of medical tourism? A scoping review. BMC Health Services Research, 10.
Das, J., & Hammer, J. (2007). Money for nothing: The dire straits of medical practice in Delhi, India. Journal of Development Economics, 83(1), 1–36,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jdeveco.2006.05.004
Duggirala, M., Rajendran, C., & Anantharaman, R. N. (2008). Patient-perceived dimensions of total quality service in healthcare. Benchmarking: An International Journal, 15(5), 560-583.
Helms, M. M., & Mayo, D. T. (2008). Assessing poor quality service: Perceptions of customer service representatives. Managing Service Quality, 18(6), 610-622.
Inside Malaysia. (2012). 131. Retrieved from etp.pemandu.gov.my.
Iyer, R., & Muncy, J. A. (2004). Who Do You Trust? Marketing Health Services, 24(2), 26-30.
Otani, K., & Kurz, S. (2004). The impact of nursing care and other healthcare attributes on hospitalized patient satisfaction and behavioral intentions. Journal of Healthcare Management, 49(3), 181?196.
Parasuraman, A., Zeithaml, V. A., & Berry, L. L. (1985). A conceptual model of service quality and its implications for future research. Journal of Marketing, 49(4), 41-50.
Lee, P. M., Khong, P. W., & Ghista, D. N. (2006). Impact of deficient healthcare service quality. The TQM Magazine, 18(6), 563-571. doi:10.1108/09544780610707075
Ramsaran?Fowdar, R. R. (2008). The relative importance of service dimensions in a healthcare setting. International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance, 21, 104?24.
Rao, K. D., Peters, D. H., & Bandeen?Roche, K. (2006). Towards patient?centered health services in India: A scale to measure patient perceptions of quality. International Journal for Quality in Healthcare, 18, 414?21.
Reidenbach, R. E., & Smallwood, S. B. (1990). Exploring perceptions of hospital operations by modified SERVQUAL approach. Journal of Health Care Marketing, 10(4), 47-55.
Saunders (2003). Research Method or Business Students, 3rd edition. New York: Prentice Hall.
UNESCAP. (2007). Patients without borders: An overview of the medical travel industry in Asia, its challenges and opportunities. Paper presented at the UNESCAP EGM, Bangkok, Thailand
Whittaker, A. (2008). Pleasure and pain: Medical travel in Asia. Global Public Health, 3(3), 271- 290. https://doi.org/10.1080/17441690701463936
Zabada, C., Singh, S., & Munchus, G. (2001). The role of information technology in enhancing patient satisfaction. British Journal of Clinical Governance, 6(1), 9-16. https://doi.org/10.1108/14664100110384948
Zhang, Y., Yang, M. M., Li, S. J., & Huang, Y. Y. (2018). Hospital service quality and patient loyalty: the mediation effect of empathy. Journal of Business and Industrial Marketing, 33 (8), 1176-1186.
In-Text Citation: (Shahril et al., 2021)
To Cite this Article: Shahril, A. M., Bachok, S., & Amiluddin, A. A. (2021). Foreign Patients’ Satisfaction toward Service Quality in Malaysia Private Hospitals. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 11(13), 101–115.
Copyright: © 2021 The Author(s)
Published by HRMARS (www.hrmars.com)
This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) license. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this license may be seen at: http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode