Perceived reputation and other factors influence consumers' hospital choices
Satisfaction with a prior hospital
admission has a large impact on
future hospital choice, according to
a new study. While clinical quality
scores are now widely available for
consumers to use when choosing a
hospital, these scores actually have
a small influence on the decision.
Instead, it appears that perceptions
related to a hospital's reputation and
medical services are what counts.
Employees and their spouses at a
large self-insured employer were
surveyed twice by telephone a year
apart. Participants were asked to
rate on a scale of 1 to 10 (1 being
least satisfied and 10 most
satisfied) each of six hospital
attributes that would influence them
when choosing a hospital for a
future overnight stay. These
attributes were the following:
overall reputation, specialty medical
services offered, amenities, out-of-pocket
costs, quality ratings, and if the hospital was included in their
health plan's network.
The respondents perceived
differences in reputation, medical
services, and out-of-pocket
expenses among the hospitals.
However, this was not the case with
amenities. Medical services and
reputation had large impacts on a
future hospital choice. Consumers
tended to gravitate toward hospitals
with better clinical quality scores
even before this information
became publically available.
However, clinical quality scores
contributed little to hospital choice
compared with a hospital's
reputation and medical services.
Satisfaction with a prior hospital
experience had a significant and
positive effect on selecting a future
hospital. The researchers suggest
that innovative strategies are needed
to point consumers to published
comparative quality data on
hospitals.
The study was supported in part by
the Agency for Healthcare Research
and Quality (HS13680).
See "Where would you go for your
next hospitalization?," by
Kyoungrae Jung, Ph.D., Roger
Feldman, Ph.D., and Dennis
Scanlon, Ph.D., in the Journal of
Health Economics 30, pp. 832-841,
2011.
— KB
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