Findings About Patient Preferences for Medical Care Based on a Decision Tree Method Study Design for Influencing Factors

Abstract

Aim: This study aimed to investigate the influencing factors of the medical-seeking behavior of patients in a hospital in Nanning and descriptively analyze the main factors to further improve the medical system and optimize the allocation of health resources. Subject and methods: The willingness to seek medical treatment questionnaire survey was conducted on patients who were in the outpatient clinic of a hospital in Nanning from Jun 2018 to Aug 2019. The patients’ basic information was analyzed descriptively using the SPSS 23.0 software package, and the influencing factors of the willingness to seek medical treatment were analyzed by univariate analysis method. In addition, the importance of influencing factors in patient preference to seek medical treatment was explored by constructing a decision tree model. Results: A total of 3428 questionnaires were valid and the effective rate was 93.78%. Region, age, occupation, educational level, monthly income, insurance type, and disease type demonstrated diverse influences on the medical expenses of patients. In addition, differences were found between occupation and patient insurance situation, personal willingness to seek medical treatment, reasons for visiting the hospital, medical selection standard, preferred medical treatment location for common diseases, waiting time, treatment time, and manner of understanding the disease. Conclusion: Increasing attention has been paid on the patients’ preference for medical treatment and their satisfaction with medical services. Medical institutions should reasonably allocate the proportion of medical insurance reimbursement and diversify the registration and appointment methods. Patients should be treated in different periods and properly allocated to improve the service mechanism of primary medical institutions. In addition, it is necessary to improve the medical publicity model and the efficiency of medical services according to the needs of patients, so as to relieve the pressure of medical treatment in large general hospitals.