Family Doctor Service in Vietnam: An Investigation of Factors Affecting Customer Satisfaction and Customer Loyalty

Abstract

Most of the public specialized hospitals in Ho Chi Minh City have been overloaded for more than 20 years. During these times, private family doctor service has been existed to help alleviate the overloading issue. The most important concern for this healthcare model is how to improve service quality and customer satisfaction on a par with those in the specialized hospitals. Therefore, what factors affecting service quality, customer satisfaction and loyalty are of very high interest to the stakeholders of this business model. The above question is also the topic of this study. From literature review, we proposed a multi-faceted conceptualization of service quality, which includes interpersonal quality, technical quality, environment quality, administrative quality and reputation whereas satisfaction and loyalty is unidimensional. Data were collected from more than 250 health care patients at family doctor clinics using the family doctor service at four public hospitals in HCMC. The findings suggested all four factors affect satisfaction, which in turn impact customer loyalty, in which administrative quality are the strongest predictor. The contribution of the study is that it is the first to investigate this issue in Vietnam. In the context that Vietnamese Ministry of Health just kicked off the implementation of this business model, this study give an overview of “a young family doctor service” in the country and especially a deep approach to the consumers through underlying dimensions. Therefore, this may be a valid source for further academic reference as well as helpful for hospital/clinic managers and policy makers to adjust services and policies suitable with the current situation.