Lupton D, Donaldson C, Lloyd P
Department of Public Health, University of Sydney, Australia.
Soc Sci Med. 1991;33(5):559-68. doi: 10.1016/0277-9536(91)90213-v.
The notion that consumerist behaviour is, or should be, prevalent amongst individuals seeking health care has underlain recent United States and British governmental policy directives. Consumer groups make similar assumptions when exhorting individuals to treat health care like any other service. This paper enquires to what extent patients conceive of themselves and others as adopting consumerist behaviour when seeking and evaluating primary health care. Three hundred and thirty-three patients attending general practices in Sydney, Australia, were asked in open-ended questions to state why they chose their regular doctor, why they continued to visit that doctor, if they had ever changed their doctor, if they thought most people could tell if a doctor were good or bad, and what qualities they thought constituted a good and bad doctor. It is concluded that the patients surveyed tended not to think of themselves as consumers who should be wary of the quality of service offered by doctors. Rather they preferred to trust their doctor, and therefore did not devote effort to actively seeking out information about their doctor or evaluating his or her services.
消费主义行为在寻求医疗保健的个人中普遍存在，或应该普遍存在，这一观念构成了美国和英国近期政府政策指令的基础。当劝告个人将医疗保健视为其他任何服务时，消费者团体也做出了类似的假设。本文探讨了患者在寻求和评估初级医疗保健时，在多大程度上将自己和他人视为采取了消费主义行为。澳大利亚悉尼的333名在全科诊所就诊的患者被问及一些开放式问题，询问他们为什么选择自己的常规医生，为什么继续找那位医生看病，他们是否换过医生，他们是否认为大多数人能分辨医生的好坏，以及他们认为构成好医生和坏医生的品质是什么。研究得出的结论是，接受调查的患者往往不认为自己是应该警惕医生提供的服务质量的消费者。相反，他们更愿意信任自己的医生，因此不会花精力积极寻找有关医生的信息或评估其服务。
