Abstract

CALERO GIMENO, Remedios; GALLARZA GRANIZO, Martina G.  and  GADEA PENA, Sergio. Segmentation and Patient Loyalty: A Cluster Analysis of the Health Service Departments in the Valencian Community. Rev. Gerenc. Polit. Salud [online]. 2018, vol.17, n.34, pp.145-159. ISSN 1657-7027.  https://doi.org/10.11144/javeriana.rgps17-34.sclp.

Under a health service framework marked by the territory segmentation and the coexistence of public administration and public-private ventures, it makes sense to analyze and classify the health service departments by considering the following objectives: to know the way patients actually behave when the choice of the service place is up to themselves; to adapt the service offer to the patient’s preferences; and to organize health service based on the territory location, thus considering its influence on the management model. Secondary data from the Valencian Community (over two million data) are used in the cluster analysis of the patient loyal behavior (entering, retention and drop out). This methodology enables the department clustering based on their similarities, thus explaining the homogeneity and heterogeneity with each other. This analysis shows to be useful for the said health service sector. In addition, the resulting classification provides a guide for the strategic management of the health services (at the macro and micro levels) and goes deeper in the debate about public-private ventures.

Keywords : health service; health service marketing; doctor-patient relations; hospital administration; health service administration; hospitals.

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