Patient's decision and experience in the multi-channel appointment context: An empirical study.
cost-related factor
health-related factor
multi-channel context
patient experience
waiting time
Journal
Frontiers in public health
ISSN: 2296-2565
Titre abrégé: Front Public Health
Pays: Switzerland
ID NLM: 101616579
Informations de publication
Date de publication:
2022
2022
Historique:
received:
19
04
2022
accepted:
04
07
2022
entrez:
18
8
2022
pubmed:
19
8
2022
medline:
20
8
2022
Statut:
epublish
Résumé
Long waiting time for treatment in the outpatient department has long been a complaint and has influenced patient's experience. It is critical to schedule patients for doctors to reduce patient's waiting time. Nowadays, multi-channel appointment has been provided for patients to get medical services, especially for those with severe illnesses and remote distance. This study aims to explore the factors that influence patient appointment channel choice in the context of multi-channel appointments, and how channel choice affects the waiting time for offline visiting. We collected outpatient appointment records from both online and offline appointment channels to conduct our empirical research. The empirical analysis is conducted in two steps. We first analyze the relationship between appointment channel choice and patient's waiting time and then the relationships between three determinants and appointment channel choice. The ordinary least squares and the logistic regression model are used to obtain the empirical results. Our results show that a patient with an online appointment decision has a shorter consultation waiting time compared with a patient with on-site appointment (β = -0.320, Our study confirms the effect of Internet use on reducing patient's waiting time. Patients consider both health-related risk factors and cost-related risk factors to make decisions on appointment channels. Our study produces several insights, which have implications for channel choice and patient's behavior literature. More importantly, these insights contribute to the design of appointment systems in hospitals.
Sections du résumé
Background
Long waiting time for treatment in the outpatient department has long been a complaint and has influenced patient's experience. It is critical to schedule patients for doctors to reduce patient's waiting time. Nowadays, multi-channel appointment has been provided for patients to get medical services, especially for those with severe illnesses and remote distance. This study aims to explore the factors that influence patient appointment channel choice in the context of multi-channel appointments, and how channel choice affects the waiting time for offline visiting.
Methods
We collected outpatient appointment records from both online and offline appointment channels to conduct our empirical research. The empirical analysis is conducted in two steps. We first analyze the relationship between appointment channel choice and patient's waiting time and then the relationships between three determinants and appointment channel choice. The ordinary least squares and the logistic regression model are used to obtain the empirical results.
Results
Our results show that a patient with an online appointment decision has a shorter consultation waiting time compared with a patient with on-site appointment (β = -0.320,
Conclusions
Our study confirms the effect of Internet use on reducing patient's waiting time. Patients consider both health-related risk factors and cost-related risk factors to make decisions on appointment channels. Our study produces several insights, which have implications for channel choice and patient's behavior literature. More importantly, these insights contribute to the design of appointment systems in hospitals.
Identifiants
pubmed: 35979451
doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2022.923661
pmc: PMC9376290
doi:
Types de publication
Journal Article
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Langues
eng
Sous-ensembles de citation
IM
Pagination
923661Informations de copyright
Copyright © 2022 Ye and Wu.
Déclaration de conflit d'intérêts
The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
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