Attributing a monetary value to patients' time: A contingent valuation approach

Area of Science:

• Health Economics
• Patient-Reported Outcomes
• Welfare Economics

Background:

• Patient time investment in healthcare, including admission, travel, waiting, and treatment, is substantial but often overlooked in economic analyses.
• Ignoring patient time can lead to biased economic evaluations and suboptimal health policy recommendations.
• Monetarily valuing the time of patients not participating in the labor market presents a significant challenge in health economics.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and empirically illustrate a comprehensive approach for the monetary valuation of patient time for individuals not participating in the labor market.
• To contribute to the health economics literature by addressing the challenge of valuing non-market time in healthcare.
• To provide a methodology applicable to both those in and out of the labor market.

Main Methods:

• Development and application of a contingent valuation survey.
• Survey administered to 238 Dutch patients across Radiotherapy, Rehabilitation, and Orthopaedics departments.
• Focus on patients not participating in the labor market.

Main Results:

• Patients not in the labor market value their waiting time the highest at €30.10 per hour.
• Travel time and treatment time were valued similarly, at €13.20 and €13.32 per hour, respectively.
• The study provides empirical data on the monetary value of different components of patient time.

Conclusions:

• The contingent valuation method provides a feasible approach to monetize patient time, even for those outside the labor market.
• Accurate valuation of patient time is crucial for unbiased economic evaluations in healthcare.
• Further research is encouraged to refine the methodology and gather more data across diverse patient subgroups.