Factors affecting patients' choice of hospitals

Background: This study was conducted to determine the factors that influence a patient's choice of hospitals. Patients and Methods: Through the use of a self-administered questionnaire, data were collected from a random sample of 541 patients in two government and two private hospitals in Riyadh. Factor analysis was used to determine the underlying hospital-related and attitudinal dimensions that influence a patient's choice of hospital. Stepwise discriminant analysis was used to determine the factors that discriminate between patients who would prefer to seek treatment in a government hospital, and those who would prefer to be treated in a private hospital. Results: The factor analysis revealed five underlying dimensions that influence a patient's choice of a hospital: convenient administrative procedures, quality of services, hospital image, cost of treatment, and health insurance coverage. After conducting stepwise discriminant analysis, eight variables appeared to be statistically significant in discriminating between patients who prefer government hospitals and those who prefer private hospitals. These variables were: cost of treatment, employment, quality of services, convenient administrative procedures, perceived state of health, health insurance coverage, age and sex. Conclusions: The results of this study indicate that the choice of hospital is influenced by sociodemographic variables as well as hospital attributes. This implies that the government should give more effective support fur the continued growth of the private healthcare sector, and also encourage further development of private health insurance.