The Effect of Service Quality on Patient Citizenship Behaviors: Evidence from the Health Sector

Background: Nowadays, health organizations seek to bring innovations to their services to stand out in competition with their rivals by improving service quality (SQ), encouraging patients to always make the same organizational choices, and enhance the behavior of patient citizenship. Objective: This study aims to determine the mediating role of patient satisfaction (PS), patient loyalty (PL), and employee responsiveness (ER) between the service quality and patient citizenship behaviors (PCB). Methods: In order to test the proposed hypotheses, quantitative research methods were utilized; cross-sectional data was collected using scales between December 2021 and March 2022. Results were obtained from 422 participants. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, correlation, confirmatory factor analysis, and structural equation modeling methods, using AMOS 21. Results: SQ was found to have a significant and positive effect on PL, PS, and ER. PL, PS, and ER were found to have a significant and positive effect on PCB. The indirect effect of SQ on PCB was found to be positive. Discussion: The findings demonstrate that SQ does not directly affect or create PCB, but it is affected by the mediators in order to create PCB via satisfaction, loyalty, and employee responsiveness.