Does Patient Satisfaction and Trust Matter in the Relationship between Service Quality and Patient Loyalty in the Health Sector?

In today’s fast-paced society, patients expect high-quality healthcare services that meet their unique health requirements. Similarly, healthcare providers emphasize quality care, utilization of advanced technologies, and promoting a culture of excellence to deliver the best possible outcomes for their clients. This study investigated how patients’ satisfaction and trust influence the relationship between service quality and patient loyalty. The theory that underpins this study was the Anderson Health Belief Model of health services use. The research adopts a quantitative descriptive research design and used a simple random sampling strategy to select 254 respondents from a target population of 1,384 who have patronised the services of the Upper East Regional Hospital in Ghana at least twice. A survey questionnaire was designed in the form of a five-point Likert scale to collect data while Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was utilised to analyze the data. The study's findings showed a significant and positive correlation between service quality characteristics and patient loyalty. Patient satisfaction mediates the relationship between service quality and patient loyalty. However, trust did not moderate the relationship between patient satisfaction and patient loyalty. It is recommended that healthcare organizations, in particular public health facilities, should be aware of the importance that patients place on quality dimensions and use this knowledge to improve upon patient loyalty and satisfaction.