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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of health-care service quality (HCSQ) dimensions on patient satisfaction and behavioural intentions in selected corporate hospitals from South India.

Based on Parasuraman et al.’s SERVQUAL variables, the study tried to identify the effects of each variable to patient satisfaction and behavioural intentions. Data were collected through systematic random sampling among 500 in-patients of corporate hospitals with minimum four days stay were considered for the in-patients’ sample. Structural equation modelling technique was used to investigate the effect of HCSQ dimensions on patient satisfaction and behavioural intention.

The findings suggest that in addition to “patient satisfaction”, the only HCSQ dimension that directly affects behavioural intention is “empathy”. In addition, “empathy” affects “responsiveness”, “assurance” and “tangibles” which, in turn, have only an indirect effect to behavioural intention through “patient satisfaction”.

This research investigated the HCSQ dimensions effects on patient satisfaction and behavioural intention from the perspective of patients and corporate hospitals run by the private players. This paper contributes to the body of academic knowledge by shedding more light into the role of HCSQ dimensions, and especially “empathy”, in the intentions for corporate hospital patients.

An understanding of the direct and indirect effect of HCSQ dimensions on patient satisfaction and behavioural intentions is important to corporate hospital marketing managers because it offers them the opportunity to take certain actions for improving patients’ satisfaction and these actions increase their intention to revisit.

The paper manages to investigate the effects of HCSQ dimensions on patient satisfaction and behavioural intention, especially in the health-care marketing sector.

The purpose of this study is to investigate and test a six-factor model that explains considerable variation in patient satisfaction with tertiary care hospitals in India.

The data of this study were collected through a systematic randomly distributed questionnaire. A pre-tested and contextually prepared structured questionnaire was used to gather 436 responses from selected tertiary care hospitals located in Hyderabad. Descriptive statistics, confirmatory factor analysis and Cronbach’s alpha are used to measure the internal consistency of the scale using the computer software SPSS 20.0.

The findings of this study highlight six distinct dimensions of patient satisfaction and the relationships among them. Positive and significant relationships among the dimensions and patient satisfaction have been found.

One limitation to this study was the inclusion of the selected tertiary care hospitals in Hyderabad city and responses are collected from inpatients who were admitted in the surgical departments of these hospitals.

This instrument would enable patients to provide feedback to hospitals regarding the quality of health care received by them. Hospitals could use this feedback to analyze their performance, satisfaction and benchmark their performance against competitive hospitals. This study has directs implications for health care service providers to provide quality of services to patients, to maintain high level of patient’s satisfaction and re-intentions.

Few studies identified and examined the factors that influence patient’s perceived satisfaction. This study adds value by investigating what factors influences patient satisfaction among selected tertiary care hospitals located in Hyderabad.

Health-care delivery organizations (hospitals) constitute a complex adaptive system; hence, a contingency perspective is imperative to guide the design of customized approaches to quality management in different health-care settings. Accordingly, this paper aims to propose a contingency framework to advance the understanding of the relationship between situational factors and effectiveness of quality approaches in health-care organizations (HCOs), such as hospitals in India.

Related literature was reviewed to identify existing research and theories related to quality and quality approaches, situational factors of the HCOs (hospitals) and some existing logical evidence on public and private hospitals in India. Then a contingencies framework for quality and quality approaches was conceptualized.

This paper proposes contingent determinants arise out of conceptualization of the HCOs (hospitals) from different system perspective such as rational system, natural system, open system and integrative system; uncertainty because of physicians’ behaviour, nurses’ approach and a dual line of authority; and the task environment such as patients, competition and economic pressure. These determinants represent situational constructs to the quality enhancement of any attempt at quality approaches. While these determinants have an influence on the quality and quality approaches of the HCOs (hospital), it is imperative to build any quality improvement strategy to work effectively, i.e., quality approach is dependent on determinants of the contingencies of the hospital’s environment, be it external or internal. Propositions for future research are also incorporated.

This paper proposes a conceptual model as well as research propositions that need to be validated and confirmed empirically. It advances the research and theory related to quality and quality approaches in a health-care setting. It can enable policymakers, hospital managers to analyze and gauge the appropriateness of quality approaches in a given context before implementing them and could help to improve the introverted quality approaches and quality dimensions currently followed in HCOs (hospitals).

Contingency framework is a new approach for research on the effectiveness of quality approaches in hospitals. The fundamental idea behind this framework is that effectiveness of quality approaches can be understood best by examining its contingent determinants. Thus, it has the capacity to contribute to the efforts of government and policymakers to make the quality of care affordable to all in India. Essentially, we examine the contexts and variables that determine the effectiveness of quality approaches.

Health care service is a widely researched area. Several established models and instruments measuring health care service quality (HCSQ) are available in the published academic literature. The objective of this article is to summarize this vast pool of available knowledge under the themes of HCSQ, its determinants and measurement strategies.

Sixty-three available published studies in peer reviewed journal combed in EBSCO and Google Scholar database have been examined and presented in exemplary literature review.

The findings have been segregated under the themes of HCSQ, its dimensions and determinants. It can be deduced from the findings that in spite of health care being a professional service, the user defined service quality takes center stage.

Rather than the seeker of care, the authors call for further research by taking a dyadic view of professional exchanges and including providers' perspectives of care in service quality evaluations as well.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how part-time waiters perceive and respond to abusive supervision by the owner-manager of a small restaurant.

An ethnographic approach was used to collect data. One of the authors worked as a participant observer for three months. In addition, 13 interviews and three focus group discussions were conducted.

Data analysis showed how neutral identification based on a primary identity—liu xu sheng (overseas student)—overshadows employees’ occupational identity (waiter), which helps waiters to cope with abusive supervision.

Development and application of the concept of neutral organizational identification orientation encourages emotional suppression and reframing, leading to waiters’ indifference and acquiescence in abusive supervision. Implications are drawn for theory and the practice of managing part-time and temporary workers.