Patients' preference on selecting a medical institution

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the relative importance of attributes for patient selection of a medical institution and to quantitatively evaluate the impact of different types of organizational forms upon the patient's selection of a medical institution.

By using a conjoint analysis, evaluation criteria in patient selection of a medical institution were examined. The paper assumed the selection of a medical institution under the situation of "being given a diagnosis of suspected diabetes with a physical examination and then visiting a medical institution". The attributes included in the questionnaire were: quality of the medical institution, distance to the hospital, amount paid at the initial visit, amount paid at hospitalization for examinations, and organizational form of the hospital. Relative importance of the attributes and relative importance of organizational form were assessed. A total of 140 people were requested to respond to the questionnaire by way of researchers who have a connection with the authors. Completed responses were obtained from 111 subjects (79 per cent).

The results of the conjoint analysis revealed that the most important attribute was quality of the medical institution. Organizational form was the attribute with the lowest importance. The utility value of being a public hospital was the highest within the organizational form attribute for all respondents and being a private hospital was the lowest. The quality of the medical institution was considered the most important factor in selecting a medical institution and the type of organizational form was considered least important. Regarding organizational form, being a public hospital was most preferred and being a hospital managed by a company and a private hospital were least preferred respectively among healthcare professionals and other occupations.

The paper provides a relative evaluation of the factors thought to be important for patients in Japan when selecting a medical institution.