Factors That Motivate Provider Switching: The Patients' Perspective

Area of Science:

• Health Services Research
• Patient Behavior Analysis
• Healthcare Management

Background:

• Understanding patient switching behavior is crucial for healthcare provider retention.
• Existing research on customer switching provides a foundation for health services research.
• Identifying critical incidents prompting patient provider changes is essential for service improvement.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify and categorize specific critical incidents that lead patients to switch healthcare providers.
• To develop a typology of patient-provider switching triggers.
• To provide evidence for strategies aimed at improving patient retention.

Main Methods:

• Applied the critical incident technique (CIT) to health services research.
• Analyzed primary data from 555 US-based patients who switched providers between 2018-2022.
• Utilized an online survey of adult patients reporting non-insurance-related reasons for switching primary care providers (PCPs).

Main Results:

• Identified eight critical incident categories associated with patient switching.
• Categories include service encounter failures, pricing, competitor attraction, inconvenience, core service failures, involuntary switching, breakdown in shared decision-making, and service environment perception.
• Findings highlight multifaceted reasons beyond insurance driving patient provider changes.

Conclusions:

• The study provides a typology of critical incidents influencing patient provider switching.
• Results offer insights for developing evidence-based strategies to enhance patient retention.
• Further investigation into these critical incidents is recommended to inform healthcare practice.