Service Expectations of Patients Across Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine Paradigms

To quantify differences in patient expectations of healthscape (e.g., interior environment) across Western medicine (WM) and Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) paradigms. Primary survey data comprise 469 Taiwanese consumers. National insurance coverage of both TCM and WM is an ideal setting to test for differences in healthscape expectations. Respondents report their recent experience as either exclusive users of TCM, exclusive WM, neither, or dual usage (both TCM and WM), and are randomly assigned to one of two surveys (identical except one refers to WM contexts, the other TCM) to rate the importance of 28 healthscape factors derived from previous studies. Multivariate analysis of variance is used to test the research hypotheses. Dual users accept some differences across paradigms. In contrast, exclusive WM users apply their existing WM expectations to TCM contexts, raising the possibility of dissatisfaction and low adoption. A person's experience with TCM is related to acceptance of healthscape differences. Medical service providers of TCM, and by extension complementary and alternative medicine, should devise strategies to ease initial visitation by exclusive WM users. Healthscape designs need not be modeled closely on a WM standard, as dual users accept differences.