Tangible, responsiveness, assurance, reliability and empathy that influence patients' satisfaction in foodservice at KPJ Puteri Specialist Hospital / Nurzahila Hayati Yaccob & Zuhaini Zainal Mohthar

Hospital food is very crucial for fast patient recovery. Most patients who stayed in the hospital have value and expectation on the kind of food service that they should get. The Management of KP J Puteri Specialist Hospital, Johor Baharu is very concerned with patients' satisfaction related to foodservice. Furthermore, the hospital needs to reduce the cost effectiveness without compromising patients' satisfaction. Therefore, KPJ must take actions to hinder food wastages as patients' satisfaction shackled. Due to the impact of this issue, the hospital needs to allocate some budget on the handling of food waste which is very costly due to the cooking process. Food waste cannot be disposed of easily such as general waste. Food waste will be collected by a specific vendor which have certain certification to handle food waste. Food waste will be weighed and the cost to dispose of has to be bear by hospital management. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the relationship between service quality towards patients' satisfaction and to analyze which SERVQUAL dimensions such as tangible, responsiveness, assurance, reliability and empathy that measure the patients' satisfaction contribute the most towards patients' satisfaction in hospital food service. A questionnaire-based survey was distributed to 250 patients at Surgical, Medical, VIP, and Orthopedic ward. Service quality was measured in terms of the SERVQUAL dimensions such as tangible, responsiveness, assurance, reliability, and empathy. The key dimensions of patient satisfaction were identified through literature. A research framework is developed indicating that patients' satisfaction is influenced by five SERVQUAL dimensions which are tangibles, responsiveness, assurance, reliability, and empathy. The dimensions have been measured by using a 5-point Likert scale with a total of 28 items covering tangible (7), responsiveness (4), assurance (4), reliability (4), empathy (4), and patients' satisfaction (5). The data collected were analyzed using SPSS 22.0. Results showed that tangible and responsiveness have a positive influence on patients' satisfaction with food service