Patient satisfaction and service quality in the formation of customers' future purchase intentions in competitive health service settings.

The following study provides evidence that the relationship between quality perceptions and satisfaction judgements in the formation of future purchase intentions may be very different in health service settings relative to other service settings. The study investigates Taylor and Baker's (1994) assertion that satisfaction judgements moderate the quality-->purchase intention relationship by testing the research model in both for-profit and not-for-profit hospital settings. The results of this study first support the growing view that satisfaction judgements are more closely related to outcome behaviors than quality perceptions in hospital settings. The results further support the assertion that the formation of important consumer outcomes, such as future purchase intentions, appears to be different for health services. Thus, health service managers are cautioned to empirically test models in the literature specific to their own competitive setting. The managerial and research implications of the reported study are presented and discussed.