van den Broek-Altenburg Eline M, Benson Jamie S, Atherly Adam J, DeStigter Kristen K
Larner College of Medicine, University of Vermont, Burlington, USA.
Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA.
PLoS One. 2025 May 16;20(5):e0301404. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0301404. eCollection 2025.
The objective of this study was to identify patient preferences for outpatient diagnostic imaging services and analyze how patients make trade-offs between attributes of these services using a discrete choice experiment (DCE). We used a DCE with 14 choice questions asking which imaging locations patients would prefer. We used latent class analysis to analyze preference heterogeneity between different patient groups and to estimate the relative value they assign to different attributes of imaging services. Our analysis showed that the "Experienced Patients" subgroup generally value diagnostic imaging services in both acute and chronic situations and had a strong preference for hospital outpatient radiology departments (HORD) that would provide services at lower costs, where their images would be interpreted by a specialty radiologist, the clinic would be recommended by their PCP, online scheduling would be available, service rating were higher, and travel and wait times would be shorter. New Patients significantly valued the service rating of the (HORD and online scheduling. HORDs can be more competitive by providing services that live up to expectations better than available retail radiology clinics (RRCs). Most RRCs do not currently offer online scheduling so ease of use may also steer patients towards HORDs. HORDs have the advantage of being linked to the main medical center which has the reputation of having clinical expertise and more sophisticated technology. We conclude that there is room for medical centers to build HORDs that provide an appealing and competitive alternative to current RRC.
本研究的目的是确定患者对门诊诊断成像服务的偏好，并使用离散选择实验（DCE）分析患者如何在这些服务的属性之间进行权衡。我们使用了一个包含14个选择问题的DCE，询问患者更喜欢哪些成像地点。我们使用潜在类别分析来分析不同患者群体之间的偏好异质性，并估计他们赋予成像服务不同属性的相对价值。我们的分析表明，“有经验的患者”亚组通常重视急性和慢性情况下的诊断成像服务，并且强烈偏好能够以较低成本提供服务、由专科放射科医生解读其影像、由其初级保健医生推荐诊所、可提供在线预约、服务评级较高且出行和等待时间较短的医院门诊放射科（HORD）。新患者显著重视HORD的服务评级和在线预约。通过提供比现有零售放射科诊所（RRC）更符合期望的服务，HORD可以更具竞争力。大多数RRC目前不提供在线预约，因此易用性也可能使患者倾向于选择HORD。HORD的优势在于与主要医疗中心相关联，该中心享有临床专业知识和更先进技术的声誉。我们得出结论，医疗中心有空间建立HORD，为当前的RRC提供有吸引力且具竞争力的替代方案。
