Understanding the effects of nurses, patients' hospital rooms, and patients' perception of control on the perceived quality of a hospital.

Service marketing researchers suggest that the physical environment, the people, and the process strongly affect consumers' judgements when they evaluate services. Previous research has rarely applied this general framework to help identify specific hospital variables that affect the perceived quality of a hospital. This article presents a proposed model and empirical evidence that is based upon this general framework. That is, this article reports the results of a study which found that the physical environment (i.e., patients' perception of their hospital rooms) and people (i.e., patients' perception of nurses) affected patients' perception of hospital quality. The process (i.e., patients' perception of control over the process) did not directly affect their perception of hospital quality. However, patients' perception of control over the process and their perception of their hospital rooms affected their perception of their nurses. Consequently, this research suggests that the general framework identified by service marketing researchers can be applied to help understand how patients develop their perception of hospital quality.