The differences between patients and guardians in the impacts of service quality factors on overall satisfaction of medical treatment service

In this study, we investigated the effects of service quality factors on overall satisfaction of medical treatment service. Especially, we focused on the differences between patients and guardians in impact of service quality factors. The data was gathered by using a structured questionnaire from 220 patients and 220 guardians. Based the factor analyses, we derived the five factors of medical service quality-process, speciality, kindness, convenience of facilities, and cleanness. Then, we examined the effects of the five service quality factors on guardians' satisfaction as well as on patients' satisfaction. The results of the empirical study showed that the kindness is more important to patients than to guardians whereas the speciality is more important to guardians than to patients.