Sait Söyler
Individuals consider a number of factors when deciding to use health services. Therefore, measuring these factors is an important issue for health institutions. The aim of this study is to develop a measurement tool that will enable standardized measurement of the factors that affect current and potential consumers of health services when choosing a health institution. In the process of developing the scale, item generation and content validity, construct validity, internal consistency, and consistency over time analyses were performed. A total of 505 participants, 267 for exploratory factor analysis, 195 for confirmatory factor analysis, and 43 for test-retest testing, were included in the study. Cronbach's alpha coefficient was used to examine the internal consistency of the scale, and “Composite Reliability (CR)” and “Average Variance Extracted (AVE)” calculations were used for composite reliability and convergent validity. As a result of the research, a scale consisting of 21 items and 5 sub-dimensions was obtained. In confirmatory factor analysis, it was determined that the fit indices were better than acceptable values (X2/df: 2,152; GFI: 0,850; AGFI: 0,803; CFI: 0,927; NFI: 0,873; RMSEA: 0,077). Cronbach's α, CR and AVE coefficients were 0.942, 0.94, and 0.62 for ‘accessibility and comfort’; 0.741, 0.75, and 0.50 for ‘physical facilities’; 0.799, 0.80 and 0.58 for ‘image’; 0.8900, 0.83 and 0.63 for ‘recommendation’ and 0.776, 0.80 and 0.67 for ‘media and promotion’, respectively. The relationships between test and retest measurements were found to range between r:0,736 and r:0,894 in sub-dimensions. It was determined that the obtained factor structure is consistent with the literature. Hospital Preference Scale is valid, reliable, and can be used by practitioners in their strategic decisions. Hospital managers can use this scale to determine the hospital preference motives of consumers and take it as a reference in their studies to improve the preferability of hospitals.