Patient experience in health care services. A gender perspective

Purpose – The healthcare sector has dramatically changed due to the role of the patient, who has become more personally involved in their healthcare decisions. Previously, hospitals focused on saving or curing as many people as possible without regarding the patient experience. This perspective has changed, and patient satisfaction has become a milestone in the sector. Therefore, this article explores patient satisfaction in the healthcare sector by studying the emotional and utilitarian factors (sociodemographic factors, gender, and type of services).

Design/methodology/approach – To verify the hypothesis proposed, a questionnaire survey in a Portuguese healthcare service was used to collect data. 386 responses were obtained. Descriptive statistics, validity and reliability analysis, a Kruskal Wallis test, and ordinal regression analysis were used for the data analysis.

Findings – Utilitarian factors are positively related to staff behavior, access to unique treatments or discounts, involvement in the care process with complete and precise information, and level of trust in the care service. Gender does not impact these factors, while the type of service offered does. On the other hand, emotional factors such as contentment, a sense of cheerfulness, the healthcare service that matches its values and beliefs, and reasonable waiting time increase satisfaction; however, results indicate that stimulation reduces patient satisfaction. Gender and type of service both present significant differences regarding the emotional factors.

Originality/value – The article explores the patient experience by considering emotional and utilitarian factors from a gender perspective and considering the services offered by the health care service, thus reducing the lack of available studies in this context. Besides, most existing studies focus only on utilitarian factors without considering emotional aspects. The present article combines both factors (utilitarian and emotional), which enriches the existing literature with a comparative analysis. Moreover, the literature on gender analysis in the healthcare sector is minimal. Thus, the present article provides novel and relevant information on gender differences in this sector. Finally, existing research identified some factors that influence the perception of customer satisfaction, mainly utilitarian. However, the article goes beyond that notion to understand that the entire patient

experience is rooted in emotional factors. In addition, more research is needed to explore why the female perspective is different.

Paper type: Research paper

patient satisfaction, quality, health care sector, gender.