Objective:

To conceptualize and empirically analyse patient loyalty behaviour to a hospital, according to patient’s demographic characteristics: gender and age.

Materials and methods:

Hospitalization and outpatient surgery records from patients of Valencia, Spain Region during 2012 (more than one million of records from an internal database from Health Council named COMPAS) are considered as secondary data for empirical research. They are analysed considering loyalty measures (capture, retention and dropout rates).

Results:

The variance analysis show there are not meaningful differences in gender. Regarding age, results show increased recruitment, retention and dropout rates in the lower age group (paediatrics).

Conclusions:

From a strategic perspective, on a pay per person system, these results become useful to health managers and researchers, confirming differences in patient loyalty depending on age.

        · resumen en Español | Portugués | Francés     · texto en Español     · Español ( pdf )