Exploring patient choice in India: A study on hospital selection

With the vital role of patients’ involvement and empowerment in selecting the most suitable service provider, this study provides an insight into the patient choice factors that affect them when choosing a hospital for treatment. The patient choice concept is essential to understand in a developing country like India, which struggles to provide public-funded health services to its citizens. This paper uses empirical analysis to evaluate data collected from a diverse patient pool of 258 patients from both public and private sector hospitals in two Indian states (New Delhi and Chandigarh). The study reveals quality of treatment, cleanliness, hospital reputation and amenities like payment and food facilities as important patient choice factors considered while choosing a health service provider in the Indian context. It was also found that service provider’s response to majority of patient choice factors was indicated unsatisfactory by the patients, and hence a need for improved service delivery is emphasised for hospitals through this study.