Patient Fidelity to Medical Services: The Roles of Authenticity and Affective Trust

Purpose: The supply of and demand for medical services continue to increase as the current social environment changes. Consequently, competition among medical institutions is intensifying and hospitals must establish appropriate management strategies to improve the medical services they provide. This study suggests that the authenticity of doctors is a factor in improving medical-service quality and examines the effect authenticity has on the affective trust and satisfaction of patients. Design, methodology, and approach: The study utilized previous studies to examine the significance of potential variables, established hypotheses and used a questionnaire to confirm these hypotheses. The questionnaire was distributed to patients who had visited a hospital in the previous six months. Responses were analyzed empirically using structural equation modeling. Findings: The analysis found that a physician’s authenticity has a significant impact on the affective trust of patients. While patients’ affective trust does not have a similar strong impact on patient satisfaction, physician authenticity does have a significant impact on patient satisfaction. Conclusion and implications: This study examined the roles of authenticity, affective trust, and patient satisfaction in doctor-patient relationships in the medical services field. The implication of the findings is that physician authenticity is a prerequisite for patient satisfaction of medical services.