Introduction:

The present study analyses the patients behavior in a setting with different management types: public sector management and public-private partnership. More specifically, the objective is to establish in which healthcare type (hospitalization, ambulatory surgery, emergencies, outpatients consultation) do the patients show a stronger loyal behavior when they are in different management scenarios.

Material and methods:

A descriptive analysis based on secondary data collected from an internal database of the Conselleria de Sanidad of the Valencian Community in Spain, a scenario with two different healthcare management types (public sector management and public-private partnership) was conducted.

Results:

Higher patient flows in two healthcare types (emergency and outpatient consultation); disparate growth of the patients' net basis; partnership favors maintaining the relationship with the patient thus preventing dropout; specialization of the public-private partnership in an assistance type: ambulatory surgery.

Conclusion:

The obtained results identify the healthcare types with higher patients' loyalty, as well as the extent to which the management type affects this loyalty behaviour.

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