Physical Appeals and Patients’ Loyalty of Privately Owned Hospitals in Rivers State, Nigeria

Abstract

This paper presents an empirical investigation on the relationship between Physical Appeals and Patients' Loyalty of Privately owned hospitals. Our study population was the 110 privately owned hospitals in Rivers State registered with Nigerian Medical Association (NMA). A sample size was taken using Krejcie and Morgan table which gave us a sample size of 86 hospitals. Five (5) copies of questionnaire were given to each of the 86 hospitals. A total of 430 copies of this questionnaire were completed by in-patients and out-patients of the hospitals studied. Out of the 430 copies, 20 copies were missed, and 10 copies were wrongly filled, that left us with 400 copies used. We adopted the partial correlation analysis to measure the linear relationship between Physical Appeals and Patients Loyalty of the hospitals under study. Spearman's rank order correlation co-efficient data analysis technique with the aid of statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) were used because we looked into the relationship between Physical Appeals and Patient's Loyalty of privately owned hospitals. All the hypothesized Physical Appeals dimensions were adjudged to be relevant in determining Patients Loyalty levels. Our findings from quantitative data analyses support the argument that Physical Appeals affect Patients Loyalty of Privately owned hospitals through ambient condition, expertise and spatial layout.