Total Quality Management : A Mediating Factor in the Relationship Between Customer Expectations and Satisfaction

Patient satisfaction is a useful metric for evaluating service quality in healthcare organizations. This study examined total quality management as a factor mediating the relationship between customer expectations and satisfaction. A self-administered questionnaire was distributed to inpatients undergoing treatment at a tertiary-level hospital in Vietnam during April 2018. A confirmatory factor analysis was performed using AMOS 25.0 (The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences version 25.0) software to determine the relationships among the latent variables of the proposed model. Customer expectations had a significant effect on total quality management and customer satisfaction, while total quality management had a positive influence on satisfaction. Thus, total quality management plays a mediating role in customer expectations and satisfaction. This study has significant implications for service organizations, indicating that patient expectations and service quality should be considered when aiming to increase customer satisfaction