Insurees' preferences in hospital choice-A population-based study

Area of Science:

• Health Services Research
• Consumer Behavior
• Health Economics

Background:

• Patients in Germany select their healthcare providers, utilizing hospital comparison websites for information.
• Understanding how consumers use these platforms and their varying preferences in hospital selection is crucial.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate how German healthcare consumers utilize hospital comparison websites.
• To identify interpersonal differences in hospital choice preferences.
• To determine the impact of specific hospital attributes on patient decisions.

Main Methods:

• A Discrete-Choice-Experiment (DCE) was conducted with 1500 participants (aged 40-70) in three German cities.
• Multilevel mixed-effects logit regression analyses examined hospital selection and choice confidence.
• Latent-Class-Analysis identified distinct consumer segments based on preferences.

Main Results:

• All four hospital attributes significantly influenced hospital choice.
• "Complication rate" was the most impactful attribute on both patient decisions and choice confidence.
• A dominant consumer segment emerged, prioritizing complication rates above all other factors.

Conclusions:

• The complication rate is a significant and trusted criterion for a large segment of healthcare consumers in hospital selection.
• Findings support German governmental initiatives to centralize specialized healthcare services.
• Further national and international research on hospital choice is recommended.