Evidence shows people rarely use online resources when selecting a healthcare provider.

Yesterday I wrote about the tendency for hospitals to remain open despite evidence they provide sub-par care. I asked "Is 'buyer beware' enough? ...I wonder how many people actually know about the available ratings services." Today I heard from Maribeth Shannon, with the California Healthcare Foundation. She said "If you didn’t see the piece released last week from the Center for Studying Health System Change you may find it interesting. We have been trying to answer the question: why don’t people use these sites?" (Thanks, Maribeth.) Alas, there's lots of evidence to support my hunch.

The report, Word of Mouth and Physician Referrals Still Drive Health Care Provider Choice, found that much of the available evidence isn't being used very extensively: "Self-reported use of quality information was low among specialist and procedure shoppers but was higher (23%) for primary care physician shoppers." My first reaction was "Oy." Then it occurred to me that I'm sometimes guilty of the same thing -- asking a friend without also checking an authoritative online resource.

If you build it, will they come? When considering the implications of their findings, the authors concluded that "The consumer-directed health care vision of consumers actively shopping is far removed from the reality of how most consumers currently choose health care providers. Few consumers make use of Internet information sources or price and quality information. Most still rely on the traditional sources of physician referrals or word-of-mouth recommendations from friends and family. "

So why don't people use evidence when it's available? The authors believe that "consumers would likely feel more compelled to use quality information if they believed that quality differed substantially across providers, and that these differences can have concrete, serious -- even life-or-death -- consequences. For policy makers seeking to engage consumers in provider shopping and quality improvement efforts, a critical challenge is to educate consumers about the existence and the serious implications of provider quality gaps." As in other efforts to promote evidence-based management, we've got to make the evidence more attention-getting.

Comments

[jeff paul internet business]

I must say if they believed that quality differed substantially across providers, and that these differences can have concrete.

[Christoph Berendes]

Alas, I have a life (or should) and so can't spend all today reading your articles. But I'm recommending a few to friends, and have one for you as well, from Seth Godin, regarding evidence and persuasion:
Are you marketing gravity or evolution?
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2008/12/gravity-is-just.html