Impact of Servant Leadership Style on Customer Service and Patient Satisfaction

Patient satisfaction presents an emerging area of research for healthcare providers because major healthcare providers like Medicare/Medicaid control the finances of healthcare institutions as based on their patient and customer satisfaction. The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of servant leadership on customer service, and patient satisfaction, in the Inland Empire Region of Southern California. The theoretical framework applied to this study was the servant leadership theory. Participants consisted of 82 managerial staff within the University Health System, which is comprised of a teaching hospital, 5 behavioral health centers, 10 federally qualified health centers, and a public health division. Data were collected using Barbuto and Wheeler\u27s Servant Leadership Questionnaire (SLQ) and the Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS) survey. The results showed a significant negative relationships between patient satisfaction and quality of care, communication, and patient safety. Patient satisfaction was significantly related with customer service. However, mediation could not be supported because the servant leadership style was not significantly related to any of the predictors (quality of care, communication, patient safety, health education, and customer satisfaction). Healthcare providers may use the results of this study to design and implement measures that would enhance the patient-perceived value of the healthcare services and improve the lived experience of patients as customers in healthcare centers of the Inland Empire, California