Improving Service Quality Through Individuals’ Satisfaction. Evidence from the Healthcare Sector

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The Palgrave Handbook of Service Management

Abstract

This chapter aims at understanding service quality, analysing service measurement, customer and employee satisfaction in the healthcare field. The health sector is crucial as care and assistance services for potential and intrinsic characteristics are considered engines for a broader and more general transformation of modern society. An integrated perspective between internal and external satisfaction is described regarding service quality focusing on the critical relationships between internal and external satisfaction that contribute to the continuous improvement of delivered service quality. Three case studies contextualized in the healthcare industry are proposed.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Adapted by Raharjo, H., Guglielmetti Mugion, R., Di Pietro, L., & Toni, M. (2016). Do satisfied employees lead to satisfied patients? An empirical study in an Italian Hospital. Total Quality Management & Business Excellence.

  2. 2.

    Adapted by Guglielmetti Mugion, R., Musella, F., Di Pietro, L., & Toni, M. (2020b). The “service excellence chain”: An empirical investigation in the healthcare field. The TQM Journal.

Abbreviations

EFQM:

European Foundation for Quality Management

IEGSI:

Internal and External Global Satisfaction Index

OBNs:

Objected Bayesian Networks

SB:

Service Blueprint

SEC:

Service Excellence Chain

SPC:

Service Profit Chain

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Correspondence to Roberta Guglielmetti Mugion .

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Guglielmetti Mugion, R., Renzi, M.F., Di Pietro, L. (2022). Improving Service Quality Through Individuals’ Satisfaction. Evidence from the Healthcare Sector. In: Edvardsson, B., Tronvoll, B. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Service Management. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-91828-6_36

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