Document Type : Original Article
Authors
1 Assistant Professor, Business, Department of Management, School of Administrative and Economics, University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran
2 Assistant Professor, Health Economics, Health Management and Economics Research Center, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran
Abstract
Introduction: The special brand equity is an important factor in marketing of health services especially in hospitals. The aim of the current study was to provide a model for evaluating the brand equity in Isfahan city hospitals, Iran.Methods: In this descriptive correlational survey, data were gathered using a questionnaire. The reliability and the content validity of the questionnaire were proved through the methods of Cronbach's alpha (α = 0.91) and factor analysis, respectively. The study was done in 10 medical centers in Isfahan city in 2015. The number of questionnaires was 380 including 24 questions. SPSS software was used for describing the demographic variables and Amos software was used for approving the fitting of model with structured equations.Results: Hospital brand equity was directly affected by ‘satisfaction’, ‘experience’ and ‘loyalty’ of patients to the hospital brand. The factor of ‘loyalty’ with the impact of 0.91 played the most important role in enhancing hospital brand equity. ‘Trust’, ‘tendency to maintain the relations’ and ‘commitment’ were the other factors which positively affected making patients ‘loyal’. The factor of ‘pervious experiences’ had no significant impact on loyalty to hospital. The result of fitting model with the index of goodness of fit index (GFI) = 0.955, normed fit index (NFI) = 0.930, and root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) = 0.071 showed validity of the proposed model for evaluating the hospital brand equity.Conclusion: According to the results, since enhancing patients’ loyalty and trust on service quality and increasing their commitment to maintain the relations with hospital are effective in hospital’s special brand equity, necessary actions should be done in order to reinforce and promote these variables. In addition, appropriate strategies should be considered in hospital policy in order to have better and more effective relations with patients during hospitalization and after discharging from hospital.
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