Impact of Mobile Health Technology Adoption on Service Quality and Patient Satisfaction: An Empirical Study in a Chinese Public Eye Hospital (Preprint)
Authors: Jin Chenhui , Xia Weidong , Cardoso Elsa 
Published: April 2020

BACKGROUND

Long registration time, long waiting time, long medication-taking time and short consultation time (three long and one short) are urgent and typical management problems to be solved in Chinese crowed hospitals. For the purpose of improving the clinical processes, and then the patient perceived hospital services and satisfaction, increasing hospitals are beginning to actively invest in the establishment of mobile health applications (Apps). Nevertheless, little is known about how use of mobile health Apps affects the patient satisfaction and perceived service quality.

OBJECTIVE

This paper aims at empirically examining the mechanisms through which how patients’ uses of mobile health Apps influence their perceptions of hospital service quality and their satisfaction.

METHODS

The study was conducted in Shenzhen Eye Hospital in China. Based on literature review and expert interviews, a research model and five hypotheses were developed regarding the relationships among four variables: Mobile Health Apps Use (MHAU), Clinical Process Change (CPC), Service Quality (SQ), and Patient Satisfaction (PS). An adapted survey instrument was developed and tested using a pilot sample. The survey was then administered to randomly selected patients in the hospital over a period of three weeks. The research model and hypotheses were tested using regression analysis.

RESULTS

The demographic information of all valid participants (N=618), including gender (39% male, 61% female), age (73.3% of 21~40 years of age), occupation (50.7% of private company), and education (52.4% of bachelor & diploma), can represent the current general population of Shenzhen city. The study results suggest that the use of mobile health Apps directly and significantly affects patient satisfaction (b=.162, P=.000<0.01), but it has no direct impact on the hospital service quality (b=-.011, P=.665). Instead, it affects the perceived changes of clinical process by patients first (b=.456, P=.000<0.01), then the hospital service quality (b=.316, P=.000<0.01). Physician-patient Interaction is an important factor that positively affects the quality of hospital service (b=.342, P=.000<0.01). Convenience is one of the important dimensions for patients to perceive the quality of service in Chinese hospitals, and it has a positive and significant impact on patient satisfaction (b=.120, P=.000<0.01).

CONCLUSIONS

Hospital managers should not only pay attention to the management of system usage, but also to organizational factors that affect the results of system usage, such as the perceived changes of clinical process by patients. When evaluating the quality of hospital service, especially in the face of large-scale hospitals with large outpatient service, Convenience dimension should be considered. In addition, managers should pay attention to enhancing the initiative of physician-patient interaction, as it is an important factor affecting patients' perception of hospital service quality. This study offers the reference to investigations in eye hospital setting and need to be confirmed further in other hospital settings.