The study of most important factors influencing physician choice

Objectives: physician-patient relationship has its own effect on medical condition and the nature of this relationship partly depends on the selective criteria that a patient has in his/her mind for choosing a physician. Material and methods: 493 persons of various age groups were selected through the cluster sampling method from 25 regions of Yazd city. In first step of research, subjects were asked to write down five most important factors in physician choice and in second step they were asked to prioritize selective criteria in a 21-items questionnaire. Data were analyzed by descriptive statistics, kruskal-wallis and Mann Whitney test. Results: one third of participants believe that the most important criteria for selecting a physician is the knowledge and experience of the physician and other important factors include spending enough time for examination and being particularly interested in the patients' problems. Although there was no significant difference between males and females attitude, the difference among age groups was significant (p<0.05). Conclusion: Physicians' awareness of the most important factors which place on choosing them specially attention to scientific qualification, communication skills and quality of medical services causes more physicians' successful function and more patients' satisfaction.