Effect of prescription waiting time on patient satisfaction mediated by service quality of pharmacy unit in public hospital in Bandung city

Abstract

Background: The Indonesia National Health Insurance (NHI) is one of the social protections to ensure all people to health. Improving the quality of good service is a demand for pharmacy unit to improve the services quality, especially in improving the rate of pharmaceutical services and patient satisfaction that has been regulated in the Ministry of Health. Aims and Objectives: This study aims to measure influence between prescription waiting time and the level of patient satisfaction mediated by the quality of pharmacy unit service as a mediator at the public hospital in Bandung City. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional questionnaire-based and direct observation method was conducted from February to April 2017. The questionnaire and observation sheet were used to obtain primary data to 302 NHI patients. Data were analyzed using structural equation modeling using software smartPLS. Results: Based on the result, general and compounding prescriptions’ waiting time is not suited with the standard. The waiting time has no positive and significant effect on the quality of pharmacy unit service with t-value of 0.532. The quality of service has a positive significant effect on patient satisfaction with t-statistics of 14.477. The waiting time has a positive and significant effect on patient satisfaction with t-statistics of 1.771 (t-table > 1.96, α = 0.05). Conclusion: The path model proposed did not fit and must be evaluated the length of waiting time and service quality as mediator. Waiting time has a positive influence on patient satisfaction even though the rate of services is slow. Then, the better pharmacy services given, then the much more patient satisfied to the hospital.