Towards an Integrated Online–Offline Healthcare System: Exploring Chinese Patients’ Preferences for Outpatient Follow-Up Visits Using a Discrete Choice Experiment

Abstract

Public hospitals in China are working to build an integrated online–offline healthcare system that combines telehealth and traditional healthcare to better serve patients. This study aims to explore Chinese patients’ preferences for online versus offline outpatient follow-up visits after the COVID-19 pandemic and to inform healthcare providers in designing optimal service delivery programmes. A discrete choice experiment was designed to elicit respondents’ stated preferences. A total of 311 valid respondents were recruited. Analysis of the full sample showed that respondents preferred traditional, offline outpatient follow-up visits. Nevertheless, a class of respondents was identified who preferred online outpatient follow-up visits. Our results show that Chinese patients are currently generally cautious about online outpatient follow-up visits since there is proportion of potentially targeted patients who stated a preference for online visits while the overall preference is still offline, in-person follow-up visits. Online outpatient follow-up visits could be attractive alternatives to traditional visits if they could meet potential users’ preferences for shorter waiting time for appointments, lower service cost, and continuity of follow-up visits. This study also suggests that it is necessary and worthwhile for healthcare providers to further explore the optimal integration of telehealth services with traditional healthcare.