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Introduction
The healthcare industry, like many other areas of business, has been impacted by the noteworthy increase in the local and international competition in the last decade. The tough global economy has motivated the organizations to change their operational standard procedures. As highlighted in previous research, it is critical to listen to customer expectations (CEs) in order to effectively satisfy the customer; such expectations can be obtained from the basic feelings of the market (Friesner et al., 2009; Yufeng and Lihong, 2014; Roger, 1996; Jaakkola et al., 2015; Jeong and Oh, 1998). Hospitals all across the USA are facing a growth in demand and must provide superior customer service and operate efficiently if they intend to maintain or increase their level of customers (Bazzoli et al., 2003). This increase in demand is leading to the development of more hospitals, but also smaller, specialized doctor’s offices and urgent care facilities that directly compete with the hospitals. Medical centers (MCs) have come a long way in improving the level of care and the quality of the patient experience (Anil, 2011; Gaucher et al., 1991; Garver, 2012; De Felice and Petrillo, 2011). Any action executed for the purpose of customer satisfaction will increase levels of loyalty and higher profits (Iqbal et al., 2014; Chieh-Peng et al., 2015; Einspruch, 2006; Pimentel and Major, 2016).
Process improvement entails further investigating operational areas in which quality needs enhancement. For example, in hospital satisfaction surveys, quality is measured regarding three different areas: patients’ perception of the value of the outcome of treatment, tools and facilities practitioners used in the treatment and process by which the treatment took place (Friesner et al., 2009). Some of these variables are measured via questions concerning whether the customer feels better, for example: the customer perceived the facility as clean, and the customer felt that waiting times were acceptable. These aspects are constituted as the main CEs, as we will see in our study.
The healthcare industry has increased substantially in recent years. Many reasons for this growth include higher numbers of chronic diseases, overpopulation, increase of elderly population and the lack of healthy lifestyle choices. According to medical device + diagnostic industry, the world’s population will increase from 7bn...