Department of General Surgery, Altinbas University Faculty of Medicine Medical Park Bahcelievler Hospital, Istanbul, Turkey.
Department of Orthopedics, Istinye University Faculty of Medicine, Istanbul, Turkey.
Int J Surg. 2019 Sep;69:43-48. doi: 10.1016/j.ijsu.2019.07.007. Epub 2019 Jul 15.
This study was designed to comprehensively evaluate the factors considered by patients in provider selection for elective specialty surgery.
A total of 200 patients (mean age 44.4 (range, 18.0-70.0) years, 51.0% were males), who were admitted to a tertiary care center for an elective surgery, participated on a voluntary basis in this cross-sectional questionnaire survey. The questionnaire form elicited items on sociodemographic characteristics of patients, characteristics of operation, factors contributing to physician selection by patients (physician-related factors, healthcare service/access related factors) and patients' view on factors contributing to physician selection.
Amongst the physician-related factors, attitude of physician (all items considered very important by majority of patients) was the factor most significantly contributed to physician selection as followed by reputation (recommendation of physician by former patients considered very important by 58.5%) or professional experience (presence of subspecialty certificate in surgery considered very important by 67.5%) and social media presence of the physician (comments and ratings of users about the physician considered very important by 26.5% of patients) of the physician. Patients considered hospital hygiene (75.5%) as the most significant healthcare service/access related factor in physician selection. Physician selection was considered to be of utmost importance in the treatment outcome by 95.5% of patients, while getting information about the physician before contacting her/him was considered important and actually performed for the current admission by 74% of patients.
In conclusion, our findings revealed that communicative skills of the physician, presence of subspecialty certificate in surgery, recommendations by former patients and comments and ratings of users were the leading factors contributed to physician selection by patients; being related to attitude, professional experience, reputation and social media presence of the physician, respectively. Hospital hygiene was the most significant healthcare service/access related factor contributed to physician selection.
本研究旨在全面评估患者在选择择期专科手术提供者时考虑的因素。
共有 200 名患者（平均年龄 44.4 岁（范围 18.0-70.0），51.0%为男性），他们因择期手术入住一家三级护理中心，自愿参与了这项横断面问卷调查。问卷表中列出了患者的社会人口统计学特征、手术特征、患者选择医生的因素（医生相关因素、医疗保健服务/可及性相关因素）以及患者对医生选择因素的看法。
在医生相关因素中，医生的态度（大多数患者认为所有项目都非常重要）是影响医生选择的最重要因素，其次是医生的声誉（以前的患者对医生的推荐被 58.5%的患者认为非常重要）或专业经验（医生有外科专业证书被 67.5%的患者认为非常重要）和医生的社交媒体存在（用户对医生的评论和评分被 26.5%的患者认为非常重要）。患者认为医院卫生（75.5%）是影响医生选择的最重要的医疗保健服务/可及性相关因素。95.5%的患者认为医生的选择对治疗结果至关重要，而 74%的患者在联系医生之前认为获取医生的信息很重要，并实际为当前就诊进行了此项操作。
总之，我们的研究结果表明，医生的沟通技巧、外科专业证书的存在、以前患者的推荐以及用户的评论和评分是患者选择医生的主要因素；分别与医生的态度、专业经验、声誉和社交媒体存在有关。医院卫生是影响医生选择的最重要的医疗保健服务/可及性相关因素。
