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Impact of the Price of Gifts From Patients on Physicians' Service Quality in Online Consultations: Empirical Study Based on Social Exchange Theory.

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND:Gift giving from patients to physicians, which is prohibited in traditional clinical settings in China, has been found to occur in online health communities. However, there is debate on the validity of online gifts since physicians gain an economic benefit. Moreover, the potential impact of these gifts, particularly with respect to the financial value of the gift, on the online consultation service quality remains unexplored. OBJECTIVE:The aim of this study was to explore the impact of gift price on the quality of physicians' online consultation service. Insight into this impact is expected to help resolve existing debate on the appropriateness of the gift-giving practice in online consultations. METHODS:A dataset of 141 physicians and 4249 physician-patient interactions was collected from the Good Physician Online website, which is the largest online consultation platform in China. Based on social exchange theory, we investigated how gift price affects the quality of physicians' online consultation service and how this impact changes according to the physician's service price and number of all gifts received. Manual annotation was used to identify the information support paragraphs and emotional support paragraphs in the answers of physicians. The quality of the information support paragraphs, rather than the complete answer, was used to test the robustness of our model. RESULTS:Gift price had a positive impact on the quality of physicians' online consultation service (β=4.941, P<.01). This impact was negatively mediated by both the physician's service price (β=-9.245, P<.001) and the total number of gifts they received (β=-5.080, P<.001). CONCLUSIONS:Gift price has a positive impact on physicians' online behavior, although the impact varies among physicians.

SUBMITTER: Wang Y

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7238091 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:OBJECTIVES:To examine patient and staff views, experiences and acceptability of a UK primary care online consultation system and ask how the system and its implementation may be improved. DESIGN:Mixed-method evaluation of a primary care e-consultation system. SETTING:Primary care practices in South West England. METHODS:Qualitative interviews with 23 practice staff in six practices. Patient survey data for 756 e-consultations from 36 practices, with free-text survey comments from 512 patients, were analysed thematically. Anonymised patients' records were abstracted for 485 e-consultations from eight practices, including consultation types and outcomes. Descriptive statistics were used to analyse quantitative data. Analysis of implementation and the usage of the e-consultation system were informed by: (1) normalisation process theory, (2) a framework that illustrates how e-consultations were co-produced and (3) patients' and staff touchpoints. RESULTS:We found different expectations between patients and staff on how to use e-consultations 'appropriately'. While some patients used the system to try and save time for themselves and their general practitioners (GPs), some used e-consultations when they could not get a timely face-to-face appointment. Most e-consultations resulted in either follow-on phone (32%) or face-to-face appointments (38%) and GPs felt that this duplicated their workload. Patient satisfaction of the system was high, but a minority were dissatisfied with practice communication about their e-consultation. CONCLUSIONS:Where both patients and staff interact with technology, it is in effect 'co-implemented'. How patients used e-consultations impacted on practice staff's experiences and appraisal of the system. Overall, the e-consultation system studied could improve access for some patients, but in its current form, it was not perceived by practices as creating sufficient efficiencies to warrant financial investment. We illustrate how this e-consultation system and its implementation can be improved, through mapping the co-production of e-consultations through touchpoints.

Project description:ObjectiveTo investigate the determinants of willingness and practice of physicians' online medical services (OMS) uptake based on social ecosystem theory, so as to formulate OMS development strategies.DesignCross-sectional survey.SettingResearch was conducted in two comprehensive hospitals and two community hospitals in Jiangsu, China, and the data were gathered from 1 June to 31 June 2020.ParticipantsWith multistage sampling, 707 physicians were enrolled in this study.Outcome measureDescriptive statistics were reported for the basic characteristics. χ2 test, Mann-Whitney U test and Spearman's correlation analysis were used to perform univariate analysis. Linear regression and logistic regression were employed to examine the determinants of physicians' OMS uptake willingness and actual uptake, respectively.ResultsThe mean score of the physicians' OMS uptake willingness was 17.33 (range 5-25), with an SD of 4.39, and 53.3% of them reported having conducted OMS. In the micro system, factors positively associated with willingness included holding administrative positions (b=1.03, p<0.05), OMS-related awareness (b=1.32, p<0.001) and OMS-related skills (b=4.88, p<0.001); the determinants of actual uptake included holding administrative positions (OR=2.89, 95% CI 1.59 to 5.28, p<0.01), OMS-related awareness (OR=1.90, 95% CI 1.22 to 2.96, p<0.01), OMS-related skills (OR=2.25, 95% CI 1.35 to 3.74, p<0.01) and working years (OR=2.44, 95% CI 1.66 to 3.59, p<0.001). In the meso system, the hospital's incentive mechanisms (b=0.78, p<0.05) were correlated with willingness; hospital advocated for OMS (OR=2.34, 95% CI 1.21 to 4.52, p<0.05), colleagues' experiences (OR=3.81, 95% CI 2.25 to 6.45, p<0.001) and patients' consultations (OR=2.93, 95% CI 2.02 to 4.25, p<0.001) were determinants of actual uptake. In the macro system, laws and policies were correlated with willingness (b=0.73, p<0.05) and actual uptake (OR=1.98, 95% CI 1.31 to 2.99, p<0.01); media orientation was also associated with willingness (b=0.74, p<0.05).ConclusionMultiple determinants influence physicians' OMS application. Comprehensive OMS promotion strategies should be put forward from multidimensional perspectives including the micro, meso and macro levels.

Project description:BackgroundDrug companies rely on their marketing activities to influence physicians. Previous studies showed that pharmaceutical companies succeeded to manage physicians prescribing behavior in developed countries. However, very little studies investigated the impact of pharmaceutical marketing strategies on prescribing pattern in developing countries, middle-eastern countries. The objective of this research was to examine the influence of drug companies' strategies on physicians' prescription behavior in the Lebanese market concerning physicians' demographic variables quantitatively. Moreover, this study tested whether Lebanese physicians considered gifts and samples acceptance as an ethical practice.MethodsSampling was done by using a non-probability method. An online cross-sectional study was conducted through WhatsApp. A self-administered questionnaire survey was conducted during the months of February and March 2018. Cronbach's Alpha reliability coefficient was calculated. Data were statistically analyzed by using IBM SPSS statistics version 24 software. Chi-square and Cramer's v tests were used to finding sign correlation, and Spearman test was used to measure the strength and direction of a relationship between variables.ResultsResults found that pharmaceutical marketing strategies are correlated to physicians' prescribing behavior. We demonstrated that the majority of the promotional tools tested were mostly or sometimes motivating physicians to prescribe promoted drugs. The major tools that physicians agreed to be mostly motivated by are visits of medical representatives and drug samples while sales calls made by pharmaceutical companies are the less influential tool. Regarding gift acceptance, this study demonstrated that physicians consider gifts' acceptance as a non-ethical practice. Results showed that most physicians use free samples to treat their patients. We demonstrated that there is a relationship between physicians' prescribing pattern and their age, gender and the location of practice.ConclusionsFindings of this study provided an insightful work, serving as one of the first humble steps in the imminent direction of merging this paper with the previous literature. From a managerial perspective, pharmaceutical marketing managers of drug companies can use the research findings to design better their strategies directed to the Lebanese physicians who can also benefit from the results obtained.

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Impact of the Price of Gifts From Patients on Physicians' Service Quality in Online Consultations: Empirical Study Based on Social Exchange Theory.

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