Abstract
Online healthcare service platforms have received abundant attention and application in recent years. Patients can easily seek healthcare service provided by healthcare service providers from various regions via these online platforms. Alternatively, they can also choose to visit local hospitals or hospitals from other regions in person. Previous studies have discussed patients’ use of online healthcare services and the change from online healthcare service to offline or vice versa. However, our understanding of the mechanism underlying patients’ choice of healthcare service resources from different channels is still limited. Thus, based on the S-O-R model, this study proposes a research model to understand the influencing factors of patients’ channel selection behaviour. The key factors include the complexity and compatibility of channels, perceived reliability and interaction attitude. A web-based questionnaire is under development to collect data for the empirical evaluation of the research model. This study explores patients’ selection behavior of healthcare resources across different channels from the perspective of individual patient. Findings of this research will contribute to the literature on online-offline integration in the healthcare service filed. The results of this research may be used by online healthcare service platforms and healthcare service providers to improve patients’ satisfaction and promote the integration of online and offline healthcare services.
Recommended Citation
Wei, Yuhan; Yan, Xiangbin; and Zhang, Tingting, "Patients’ Selection Behaviour of Healthcare Service Channels in the Context of Online and Offline Integration" (2022). WHICEB 2022 Proceedings. 76.
https://aisel.aisnet.org/whiceb2022/76