Abstract
This research studies patients' evaluation processes when choosing a healthcare facility. For the study we classified the factors that influence patients' choices for a healthcare facility into three categories: “technical factors", “people factors" and “amenity factors". We analyzed the differences in the evaluation of each of these factors from the viewpoint of patients who had experienced healthcare service in said healthcare facilities (existing patients;experienced) and those patients without experience (new patients;non-experienced).
Our study shows significant differences between experienced and non-experienced patients in evaluating “technical factors", “people factors" and some of the “amenity factors".
One factor, “waiting time"(included in “amenity factors" ), was not described as significant in the decision process by both types of patients. On the other hand, for non-experienced patients “technical factors" and “amenity factors" had a strong influence on their choice of a healthcare facility, while for experienced patients the “human factor" had a strong influence on their decision.
Healthcare facilities which hope to increase their service usage by developing a new marketing strategy should be aware of the different values that existing and new patients focus upon.
Follow-up studies are recommended to further understand the process, how patients evaluate and choose health care facilities.
