ArticleMedicine2020
Medical service quality, psychological contract, and patient loyalty: An empirical study among patients in China.
Article in Medicine, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers.
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Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed.
- Needs, attitudes, and factors influencing medical tourism in Thailand.Preventive medicine reports · 2026Article
- The impact of hospital pharmacists' psychological contracts on medication adherence management: The mediating role of job burnout.PloS one · 2026Article
- The Relationship Between Communicative Health Literacy and Patient Loyalty in China: A Chain Mediation Study Based on Social Exchange Theory.Journal of multidisciplinary healthcare · 2026Article
- Patients' loyalty to primary care institutions and associated factors in China: a cross-sectional study.BMC health services research · 2025Article
- Improving patient satisfaction based on service quality in clinical trials: A cross-sectional study.PloS one · 2024Article
- Applying the Balanced Scorecard to Build Service Performance Measurements of Medical Institutions: An AHP-DEMATEL Approach.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2023Article
- Continuous Renal Replacement Therapy for Hypertension Complicated by Refractory Heart Failure: An Analysis of Safety and Nursing Highlights.Computational and mathematical methods in medicine · 2022Article
- Exploring the Relationship Between Hospital Service Quality, Patient Trust, and Loyalty From a Service Encounter Perspective in Elderly With Chronic Diseases.Frontiers in public health · 2022Review
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The purpose of this study is to examine the mediating effect of psychological contracts (including relational and transactional psychological contracts) on the relationship between medical service quality and patient loyalty.A cross-sectional survey was conducted between September and December 2017. Questionnaires assessing medical service quality, the psychological contract, and patient loyalty were distributed to a random sample of 600 patients across 6 hospitals. The final sample consisted of 469 participants. Hierarchical regression analyses were conducted to examine the mediating effect of psychological contracts on the relationship between medical service quality and patient loyalty.The mean scores of medical service quality, psychological contracts, and patient loyalty were 3.497 ± 0.571, 3.699 ± 0.503, and 3.342 ± 0.724, respectively. Medical service quality is positively related to psychological contract (β = 0.612, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.476-0.603) and patient loyalty (β = 0.676, 95% CI = 0.773-0.944). Further, psychological contract is positively related to patient loyalty (β = 0.599, 95% CI = 0.757-0.968). Both relational psychological contract and transactional psychological contract mediate the relationship between medical service quality and patient loyalty.Our findings reveal that medical service quality is associated with patient loyalty and that this association is mediated by relational and transactional psychological contracts. Therefore, in order to improve patient loyalty, psychological contracts should be reinforced, and medical service quality should be improved.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.