Service Quality, Satisfaction, and Revisit Intention in a Thai Traditional Medicine Clinic: Application of the SERVQUAL Model
Article Sidebar
Main Article Content
Abstract
This cross-sectional survey aimed to assess service quality, patient satisfaction, and revisit intention among clients of the Clinic of Thai Traditional Medicine, Sakon Nakhon Provincial Public Health Office, using the SERVQUAL model. A total of 114 participants were selected through purposive sampling. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire with dimensional reliability coefficients ranging from 0.82 to 0.91, and analyzed using descriptive statistics, paired-sample t-tests, one-way ANOVA, Pearson's correlation, multiple regression, and mediation analysis. Overall perceived service quality was rated at a high level ( = 3.70), while expectations were at the highest level ( = 4.28). All five SERVQUAL dimensions showed statistically significant negative quality gaps (p < .001), with the tangibles dimension showing the largest gap (-0.76). Perceived service quality was significantly associated with age, education level, and service frequency. The five dimensions jointly accounted for 54.8% of the variance in satisfaction and 46.2% of the variance in revisit intention, with empathy (β = 0.32) and assurance (β = 0.24) as significant predictors of satisfaction. Mediation analysis indicated that satisfaction served as a partial mediator between service quality and revisit intention, with the indirect effect accounting for 41.8% of the total effect. The findings suggest that empathy is an important factor associated with satisfaction in Thai traditional medicine services, and that satisfaction is a mechanism linking service quality to revisit intention. The findings may inform service quality improvement at the unit level.
Article Details
References
Ajzen, I. (1991). The theory of planned behavior. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 50(2), 179–211. https://doi.org/10.1016/0749-5978(91)90020-T
Aliman, N.K., & Mohamad, W.N. (2016). Linking Service Quality, Patients’ Satisfaction and Behavioral Intentions: An Investigation on Private Healthcare in Malaysia. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 224, 141-148. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2016.05.419
Alizadeh, T., Noveiry, M. J. S., Karkhah, S., Kazemnezhad Leyli, E., Salami Kohan, K., & Vajargah, P. G. (2025). Service quality in Iranian hospitals from patients' perspectives based on the SERVQUAL model: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Health Science Reports, 8(1), e70362. https://doi.org/10.1002/hsr2.70362
Amin, M., & Nasharuddin, S. Z. (2013). Hospital service quality and its effects on patient satisfaction and behavioural intention. Clinical Governance: An International Journal, 18(3), 238–254. https://doi.org/10.1108/CGIJ-05-2012-0016
Baron, R. M., & Kenny, D. A. (1986). The moderator–mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: Conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 51(6), 1173–1182. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.51.6.1173
Best, J. W., & Kahn, J. V. (2006). Research in education (10th ed.). Pearson Education.
Cai, Y., Liu, Y., Liu, S., Wang, C., & Jiang, Y. (2025). A cross-sectional study on the relationship between length of stay and patient satisfaction based on the SERVQUAL model. Scientific Reports, 15, 5605. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-90176-z
Cohen, J. (1988). Statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences (2nd ed.). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Cohen, J., Cohen, P., West, S. G., & Aiken, L. S. (2003). Applied multiple regression/correlation analysis for the behavioral sciences (3rd ed.). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. https://doi.org/10.4324/9
Department of Thai Traditional and Alternative Medicine. (2022). Strategic Plan of the Department of Thai Traditional and Alternative Medicine, 5-year Plan (2023–2027). Ministry of Public Health. (In Thai)
Dormann, C. F., Elith, J., Bacher, S., Buchmann, C., Carl, G., Carré, G., García Marquéz, J. R., Gruber, B., Lafourcade, B., Leitão, P. J., Münkemüller, T., McClean, C., Osborne, P. E., Reineking, B., Schröder, B., Skidmore, A. K., Zurell, D., & Lautenbach, S. (2013). Collinearity: A review of methods to deal with it and a simulation study evaluating their performance. Ecography, 36(1), 27–46. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0587.2012.07348.x
Fatima, I., Humayun, A., Iqbal, U., & Shafiq, M. (2019). Dimensions of service quality in healthcare: A systematic review of literature. International Journal for Quality in Health Care, 31(2), 11-29. https://doi.org/10.1093/intqhc/mzy125
Faul, F., Erdfelder, E., Buchner, A., & Lang, A. G. (2009). Statistical power analyses using G*Power 3.1: Tests for correlation and regression analyses. Behavior Research Methods, 41(4), 1149–1160. https://doi.org/10.3758/BRM.41.4.1149
Hair, J. F., Black, W. C., Babin, B. J., & Anderson, R. E. (2019). Multivariate data analysis (8th ed.). Cengage Learning.
Hayes, A. F. (2022). Introduction to mediation, moderation, and conditional process analysis: A regression-based approach (3rd ed.). Guilford Press.
Jonkisz, A., Karniej, P., & Krasowska, D. (2022). The SERVQUAL method as an assessment tool of the quality of medical services in selected Asian countries. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(13), 7831. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19137831
Kang, H. (2021). Sample size determination and power analysis using the G*Power software. Journal of Educational Evaluation for Health Professions, 18, 17. https://doi.org/10.3352/jeehp.2021.18.17
Lakens, D. (2013). Calculating and reporting effect sizes to facilitate cumulative science: A practical primer. Frontiers in Psychology, 4, 863. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00863
Nunnally, J. C., & Bernstein, I. H. (1994). Psychometric theory (3rd ed.). McGraw-Hill.
Oliver, R. L. (1980). A cognitive model of the antecedents and consequences of satisfaction decisions. Journal of Marketing Research, 17(4), 460–469. https://doi.org/10.1177/002224378001700405
Parasuraman, A., Zeithaml, V. A., & Berry, L. L. (1985). A conceptual model of service quality and its implications for future research. Journal of Marketing, 49(4), 41–50. https://doi.org/10.1177/00
Parasuraman, A., Zeithaml, V. A., & Berry, L. L. (1988). SERVQUAL: A multiple-item scale for measuring consumer perceptions of service quality. Journal of Retailing, 64(1), 12–40.
Preacher, K. J., & Hayes, A. F. (2008). Asymptotic and resampling strategies for assessing and comparing indirect effects in multiple mediator models. Behavior Research Methods, 40(3), 879–891. https://doi.org/10.3758/BRM.40.3.879
Preacher, K. J., & Kelley, K. (2011). Effect size measures for mediation models: Quantitative strategies for communicating indirect effects. Psychological Methods, 16(2), 93–115. https://doi.org/10.10
/a0022658
Rahmatia, S., Basri, M., Ismail, I., Adi, S., Nasrullah, N., & Ahmad, A. (2025). Service quality in hospital inpatient care: SERVQUAL model approach. Health SA Gesondheid, 30, a3055. https://doi.org/10.4102/hsag.v30i0.3055
Rauf, A., Muhammad, N., Mahmood, H., & Yen, Y. Y. (2024). The influence of healthcare service quality on patients' satisfaction in urban areas: The case of Pakistan. Heliyon, 10(18), Article e37506. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e37506
Sakon Nakhon Provincial Public Health Office. (2023). Annual report fiscal year 2023 [Unpublished report]. Department of Health Service Support, Sakon Nakhon Provincial Public Health Office. (In Thai)
Thai Traditional Medical Profession Act, B.E. 2556 (2013). Government Gazette, Vol. 130, Part 10 A, pp. 1-19 (1 February 2013). (In Thai)
World Health Organization. (2013). WHO traditional medicine strategy 2014–2023. WHO Press. https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789241506096
World Health Organization. (2024). WHO global report on traditional and complementary medicine 2024. WHO Press. https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240100466
Xia, Y., Li, B., Yang, J., Guo, W., Sun, J., Zeng, X., & Zheng, J. (2025). Sustainable service quality assessment of Chinese healthcare e-government: a multi-criteria decision framework based on SERVQUAL model and entropy-weight TOPSIS method. Frontiers in digital health, 7, 1611979. https://doi.org/10.3389/fdgth.2025.1611979
Zeithaml, V. A., Berry, L. L., & Parasuraman, A. (1996). The behavioral consequences of service quality. Journal of Marketing, 60(2), 31–46. https://doi.org/10.1177/002224299606000203
Zun, A. B., Ibrahim, M. I., & Hamid, A. A. (2018). Level of Satisfaction on Service Quality Dimensions Based on SERVQUAL Model Among Patients Attending 1 Malaysia Clinic in Kota Bharu, Malaysia. Oman medical journal, 33(5), 416–422. https://doi.org/10.5001/omj.2018.76
