Boosting Perceived Customer Orientation as a Driver of Patient Satisfaction

OBJECTIVE Several hospitals have embraced customer orientation as a strategy to better meet patients' needs, desires, and wishes. This study therefore investigates how hospitals can boost the extent to which patients feel treated in a customer-oriented way by staff (hereafter, "perceived customer orientation") and its implications for their satisfaction with the hospital. DESIGN A cross-sectional study of hospital staff's interpersonal skills (interpersonal quality) and the atmosphere and physical features of the hospital (environmental quality) as drivers of perceived customer orientation and its satisfaction implications. PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING Two hundred eighty-nine patients in seven surgery wards and two day-surgery departments of a Belgian hospital. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Perceived customer orientation and patient satisfaction. RESULTS Our results show that interpersonal and environmental qualities have a positive impact on perceived customer orientation, with the interpersonal skills of nursing staff having a greater effect than those of physicians. Perceived customer orientation, however, matters most for patient satisfaction when the nature of the service involves high-contact frequency. CONCLUSIONS Interpersonal and environmental qualities may help to ensure that patients feel treated in a customer-oriented way, which improves patient satisfaction with the hospital.