ABSTRACT
The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between patients’ mind engagement and Patronage of public hospitals in Port Harcourt. The population for the study comprised fifty thousand (50000) estimated patients of the 8 public hospitals in Port Harcourt while the sample size consist three hundred and eighty-one (381) patients of public hospitals as adapted from the Krejcie and Morgan Table. 381 copies of structured questionnaire were distributed to respondents, while 310 copies were returned, but only 290 copies was used in the final analyses, after data cleaning. The Pearson Product Moment Correlation was used to test the hypotheses of the study. The results showed that patients’ mind engagement had positive and significant relationship with patronage of public hospitals in Port Harcourt. The study thus concluded that patients’ mind engagement significantly relates to patronage of public hospitals in Port Harcourt; and recommends that public hospitals in Port Harcourt should regularly update their ambience, and improve on their use of audio visual aids that will reduce patients’ perceived waiting time in other to improve their level of patronage. Keywords: Customer retention, patients’ mind engagement, repeat purchase behaviour, patronage