Factors Affecting Patient Satisfaction of Dental Services Organizations

치과의료서비스에 대한 환자만족 영향원인 -경남 일부 지역 치과의원을 중심으로-

The main objective of this study is to investigate the factors affecting patient satisfaction, repeat-use intention, and inducement intention for providing the suggestion for patient-oriented management of dental services organizations. For this study, the patient satisfaction model including 14 facets of satisfaction factors such as distance(time/location), human services(dentist-hygienist), treatment results, and facilities(convenient facilities/parking lot) was examined. Data were collected from 196 patients who visiting the same dental services organization more than two times of ten dental clinics at Kyeongsangnam-do area using self-administered questionnaire. Major results of the empirical analysis are as follows: First, patient satisfaction, repeat-use intention, and inducement intention were significantly correlated with gender, age, economic conditions among patients of dental clinics. Second, kindness of hygienist, treatment results, kindness of receptionist, waiting time, emergency medical services, and right-fee for services were found to have significant influence on dental services organizations. These research findings suggest that improvement of service quality in dental care and advancement in treatment ability of dentist and hygienist are very important to improve patient satisfaction and patient-oriented service system in dental services organizations.