The impact of life quality on expectations of medical services' patients

Abstract

PURPOSE: To investigate whether a relationship exists between quality of life and expectations regarding healthcare service quality across OECD member states.

DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH: Data on over 36 000 healthcare-related facilities were collected via Google Places API. Ratings were aggregated and compared with Better Life Index measures using Spearman rank correlation coefficients to test the hypothesis of a negative relationship between well-being and perceived service quality.

FINDINGS: Significant negative correlations were observed between facility ratings and dimensions such as Community, Education, Jobs and Life Satisfaction. Individual medical practices showed particularly strong negative associations. Aspects of well-being such as Income, Housing, Safety, Health, Work-Life Balance showed no significant correlation. Findings indicate that higher well-being is associated with elevated customer expectations.

PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS: Healthcare providers should recognize that higher patient expectations may negatively influence perceived quality of their services. Policymakers and business owners should contextualize online ratings alongside objective indicators.

ORIGINALITY/VALUE: The study uniquely combines large-scale crowdsourced ratings from Google Maps with internationally recognized well-being measures to highlight the relationship between subjective service perception and countries’ level of development.