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Why patients may not exercise their choice when referred for hospital care. An exploratory study based on interviews with patients
BACKGROUND: Various north‐western European health‐care systems encourage patients to make an active choice of health‐care provider. This study explores, qualitatively, patients' hospital selection processes and provides insight into the reasons why patients do or do not make active choices. MET...
Autores principales: | , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
John Wiley and Sons Inc.
2014
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5055249/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24938761 http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/hex.12224 |
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author | Victoor, Aafke Delnoij, Diana Friele, Roland Rademakers, Jany |
author_facet | Victoor, Aafke Delnoij, Diana Friele, Roland Rademakers, Jany |
author_sort | Victoor, Aafke |
collection | PubMed |
description | BACKGROUND: Various north‐western European health‐care systems encourage patients to make an active choice of health‐care provider. This study explores, qualitatively, patients' hospital selection processes and provides insight into the reasons why patients do or do not make active choices. METHODS: Semi‐structured individual interviews were conducted with 142 patients in two departments of three Dutch hospitals. Interviews were recorded, transcribed and analysed in accordance with the grounded theory approach. RESULTS: Three levels of choice activation were identified – passive, semi‐active and active. The majority of the patients, however, visited the default hospital without having used quality information or considered alternatives. Various factors relating to patient, provider and health‐care system characteristics were identified that influenced patients' level of choice activation. On the whole, the patients interviewed could be classified into five types with regard to how they chose, or ‘ended up at’ a hospital. These types varied from patients who did not have a choice to patients who made an active choice. CONCLUSIONS: A large variation exists in the way patients choose a hospital. However, most patients tend to visit the default without being concerned about choice. Generally, they do not see any reason to choose another hospital. In addition, barriers exist to making choices. The idea of a patient who actively makes a choice originates from neoclassical microeconomic theory. However, policy makers may try in vain to bring principles originating from this theory into health care. Even so, patients do value the opportunity of attending ‘their’ own hospital. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-5055249 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2014 |
publisher | John Wiley and Sons Inc. |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-50552492016-12-07 Why patients may not exercise their choice when referred for hospital care. An exploratory study based on interviews with patients Victoor, Aafke Delnoij, Diana Friele, Roland Rademakers, Jany Health Expect Original Research Papers BACKGROUND: Various north‐western European health‐care systems encourage patients to make an active choice of health‐care provider. This study explores, qualitatively, patients' hospital selection processes and provides insight into the reasons why patients do or do not make active choices. METHODS: Semi‐structured individual interviews were conducted with 142 patients in two departments of three Dutch hospitals. Interviews were recorded, transcribed and analysed in accordance with the grounded theory approach. RESULTS: Three levels of choice activation were identified – passive, semi‐active and active. The majority of the patients, however, visited the default hospital without having used quality information or considered alternatives. Various factors relating to patient, provider and health‐care system characteristics were identified that influenced patients' level of choice activation. On the whole, the patients interviewed could be classified into five types with regard to how they chose, or ‘ended up at’ a hospital. These types varied from patients who did not have a choice to patients who made an active choice. CONCLUSIONS: A large variation exists in the way patients choose a hospital. However, most patients tend to visit the default without being concerned about choice. Generally, they do not see any reason to choose another hospital. In addition, barriers exist to making choices. The idea of a patient who actively makes a choice originates from neoclassical microeconomic theory. However, policy makers may try in vain to bring principles originating from this theory into health care. Even so, patients do value the opportunity of attending ‘their’ own hospital. John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2014-06-17 2016-06 /pmc/articles/PMC5055249/ /pubmed/24938761 http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/hex.12224 Text en © 2014 The Authors Health Expectations Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
spellingShingle | Original Research Papers Victoor, Aafke Delnoij, Diana Friele, Roland Rademakers, Jany Why patients may not exercise their choice when referred for hospital care. An exploratory study based on interviews with patients |
title | Why patients may not exercise their choice when referred for hospital care. An exploratory study based on interviews with patients |
title_full | Why patients may not exercise their choice when referred for hospital care. An exploratory study based on interviews with patients |
title_fullStr | Why patients may not exercise their choice when referred for hospital care. An exploratory study based on interviews with patients |
title_full_unstemmed | Why patients may not exercise their choice when referred for hospital care. An exploratory study based on interviews with patients |
title_short | Why patients may not exercise their choice when referred for hospital care. An exploratory study based on interviews with patients |
title_sort | why patients may not exercise their choice when referred for hospital care. an exploratory study based on interviews with patients |
topic | Original Research Papers |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5055249/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24938761 http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/hex.12224 |
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