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Choosing a health care provider
The Synthesis Project. Research Synthesis Report
|November 5, 2011
Summary
Consumers want healthcare quality information but rarely use available data. They rely on personal recommendations, not public quality scores, when choosing providers.
Area of Science:
- Health Services Research
- Consumer Behavior in Healthcare
- Health Information Availability
Background:
- Consumer-driven healthcare models assume informed consumers select providers based on quality and cost.
- Publicly available quality information is crucial for enabling informed consumer choice and fostering competition.
Purpose of the Study:
- To examine the availability of public healthcare quality information.
- To assess how consumers utilize this information when selecting healthcare providers.
Main Methods:
- Synthesis of existing research on healthcare quality information.
- Analysis of data on information accessibility, consumer awareness, and usage patterns.
Main Results:
- Quality information is available for hospitals but not individual physicians, primarily online, limiting access.
- Consumer awareness of quality data is low, particularly among less educated or less healthy individuals.
- Consumers rarely use available quality data, citing irrelevance, lack of immediate need, or satisfaction with current providers.
Conclusions:
- Despite valuing quality, consumers prioritize personal recommendations over public data for provider selection.
- Healthcare providers are more responsive to quality scores than consumers are active users of the information.
- Improving the relevance and accessibility of quality information is needed to support consumer decision-making.
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