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Abstract
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To survive in the intensely competitive healthcare industry, private hospitals must leverage on the niche market Allied Health, which has a profound effect not only on reducing the health burden by controlling chronic diseases and reducing complications but also has improvement in the quality of life. Taking cognition that Patients’ Satisfaction has been the driving pivotal force and the benchmarking indicator in the healthcare industry, this research intends to find the direct relationship between the Patients’ Satisfaction in Allied Health and the independent variables, Management Support, Support Facilities, Service Quality and Cost and to further correlate the impact of the intervening relationship of Treatment Outcome, between the independent variables and the dependent variable. Triangulation Method, with quantitative survey results of 150 public from Penang Island were subjected to multiple statistical analysis such as ANOVA, Multiple Regression Analysis, Chi square and Hierarchical regression, followed by qualitative analysis of semi structured interview results from 10 selected respondents. Though results proved all hypotheses and the positive correlation of all variables, the predictive model showed Service Quality as the most significant independent variable influencing Patients’ Satisfaction in Allied Health implying the importance of quality in healthcare. Interestingly, hierarchical regression proved Treatment Outcome as even more crucial, intervening between all the above independent variables and the Patients’ Satisfaction in Allied Health. Qualitative survey reiterated the findings of quantitative survey. Since Patients’ Satisfaction is the anchoring force for the success of healthcare industry, factors which influence Patients’ Satisfaction in AH, as shown by the research results, Service Quality and Treatment Outcome must be given utmost preference to improve the hospital’s reputation and image. Since this research is confined to only 6 categories of the Allied Health focusing only in the private hospitals of Penang Island, it is needless to say future of healthcare will certainly benefit from a more elaborative study. Health tourism and MM2H have increased the demand for high quality standards of health care in Malaysia, to be in par with western countries. With the affordable state of the art treatment modalities, Malaysian hospitals should capitalize and take leverage on the upcoming niche market Allied Health, which is a beneficial futuristic move for hospitals to survive and sustain in competitive healthcare industry.
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