Role of Consumerism in Choosing Health Care Provider in Saudi Arabia

ANSWER

Role of Consumerism in Choosing Health Care Provider in Saudi Arabia

The search for and decision on an appropriate healthcare service provider involves the potential healthcare consumer, considering their needs or problems. The needs of a consumer may be either self-perceived or self-assessed type, since they are personal ones that the patient identifies to initiate the process of pursuing a healthcare provider. The choice of a healthcare service provider is influenced by a consumer’s perceived needs and the healthcare marketers available in a region and besides number of providers available (Al-Briek et al., 2018). A healthcare consumer’s perceived need is a combination of the needs for limited healthcare and comprehensive care. These two needs determine the type of healthcare provider that a consumer selects. A patient that needs comprehensive care, such as a regular check-up patient who is interested in maintaining general health, probably seeks the services of a general practitioner.

A patient whose perceived need is limited care, such as an emergency patient, presumably identifies his or her needs depending on opinion of the specialist providing the care. The choice of a healthcare provider also involves a certain level of uncertainty and risk to consumers. This risk comes from the amount of money involved in a decision, the level of consumer confidence in their decision, and other uncertainties, such as the outcome of their choice. A chosen healthcare services provider may charge too much, fail to meet the expectations of the patient, or cause a lot of pain during the provision of services. Due to such risks and uncertainties, consumers tend to depend on informal sources of information or advice, mostly recommendations by friends and family orally. Various trends in decision-making involving healthcare services providers in Saudi Arabia are prevailing currently with issues such as consumer expectations from the provider, marketing strategy of the providers, and the role of healthcare consumerism in the marketing strategy of providers.

Consumer Needs and the Choice of Healthcare Services Provider in Saudi Arabia

The quality of services provided by a medical institution leave an indelible impression on the minds of visitors. The choice of a healthcare provider is usually aimed at increasing the level of satisfaction and improving healthcare provision outcomes (Yassini, Harrazi, & Askari, 2010). As earlier stated, the choice of a healthcare provider is determined by a consumer’s perceived needs besides other factors, such as the level of uncertainty and availability of providers. According to Al-Briek et al. (2018), some of the influential factors in the choice of a healthcare services provider in Saudi Arabia are the popularity of the physician, their appearance, the physician’s previous experience, their title and specialization, the availability of an appointment within a short period, affordability, and the ease of access to a facility. The research showed that a patient’s experience with a physician and a facility, specialization, and title of a physician greatly influence the choice of a healthcare provider in Saudi Arabia. Many healthcare consumers depend on their previous experience with a healthcare provider or physician while deciding to consult them. Nevertheless, it is undisputed that an easy access to care is treated universally as the most important factor influencing decision-making of a patient when choosing a healthcare provider (NRC Health, 2019). Thus, it is imperative for a medical institution to ensure that patients are fully satisfied with the care provided to them.

Increased consumer awareness on the value of getting appropriate healthcare and the introduction of incentives, such as health plans and insurance, have played a huge role in the increased importance of informed decision-making on choosing a healthcare provider. Today, the choice largely depends on the following changing needs of patients: affordability, geographical accessibility, appropriate opening and closing hours, physician’s experience, and availability of drugs and equipment (Yassini et al., 2010). In business operations, the choice of a product or service is determined by the consumers’ preference for that product or service. Preference is often developed as a result of consumer satisfaction with a product or service, socioeconomic factors, and the quality of service or product. In healthcare provision, consumer satisfaction with services is a determinant of preference for a healthcare provider (Al-Briek et al., 2018). This is in conformity with the fact that consumers naturally gravitate towards agencies that cater to their needs seamlessly.

A number of factors influence health services consumers in Saudi Arabia while seeking medical intervention. Some of these are accessibility, competence, availability of health workers or physicians, cost of medicines, and quality of services (Al-Doghaither, Abdelrhman, Saeed, & Magzoub, 2003). Consumers wish to choose a healthcare provider that can provide the best quality of service at an affordable cost. They also consider the waiting times when making a decision on a healthcare provider, as it indicates the ease of being attended to at a facility (Al-Doghaither et al., 2003). It can be seen thus that patients consider certain vital parameters before deciding upon a health care provider in the country.

Healthcare Consumerism and Marketing Strategy

Marketing strategies play a significant role in promotion of healthcare consumerism. With the modern consumer’s discretionary choices largely influences by factors like convenience and better control over decision-making, the ability is being reflected in their interactions with the health care sector (Falk, 2018). To successfully market their services, healthcare providers need to understand the factors that influence the consumer’s decision. This is possible through the healthcare consumerism concept, which transforms healthcare benefit plans by enabling patients to be fully involved in decision-making. In the traditional employer and government health plans, the consumers in the healthcare sector did not have a say on the decision of healthcare providers. Patients paid little attention to factors, such as cost and quality of service since they were not involved in the decision-making process. All they were interested in was getting care from an effective healthcare system. With healthcare consumerism, however, healthcare providers and healthcare plans provide adequate information, incentives, and tools for decision-making to the consumers to enable them to take informed decisions on the choice of healthcare providers (Uchendu, Ilesanmi, & Olumide, 2013). The above practice is gaining widespread currency globally in view of the increased consumer awareness.

Healthcare providers need to provide adequate information regarding the qualifications, experience, and specialization of physicians, , average waiting time, available services and drugs, and the cost of services to consumers to enable the latter in taking informed decisions. Healthcare consumerism is an effective method of marketing in the healthcare sector. Its application in Saudi Arabia would definitely result in effective marketing, since the healthcare providers are already aware of the consumer needs and the factors that influence decision-making in the region.

Recommendations and Conclusion

Healthcare providers in the region need to improve the affordability of services and invest in improving marketing through spoken communication. It is important that these providers ensure that patients have easy access to quality healthcare. This objective can be achieved by ensuring availability of qualified personnel. The long waiting times should be reduced through the identification of possible causes and developing their solutions. Healthcare consumerism should be applied to ensure that consumers in healthcare are involved in decision-making as well as in establishing a more consumer-oriented industry. To monitor the performance of these marketing strategies, healthcare providers should regularly conduct research to determine how consumers learned about their services and availability, and whether they would recommend them to other people. Data should also be collected on areas for improvements to fulfill the expectations of consumers. The quality of care provided should be evaluated periodically based on the comments of consumers regarding the quality of services received.

References

Al-Briek, A., Al-Barrak, A., Al-Johi, K., Al-Anazi, M., Al-Ateeq, M., & Masud, N. (2018). Factors that influence patients in choosing their treating physicians in the private sector in Saudi Arabia. American Journal of Public Health, 6(4), 173–181. DOI: 10.12691/ajphr-6-4-

Al-Doghaither, A. H., Abdelrhman, B. M., Saeed, A. W., & Magzoub, M. E. M. A. (2003). Factors influencing patient choice of hospitals in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The Journal of the Royal Society for the Promotion of Health, 123(2), 105–109. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F146642400312300215

Falk, J. (2018, March 23). Study: Consumerism in health care increasing. News and Media Relations, Rice University, Houston, Texas. Retrieved from https://news.rice.edu/2018/03/23/study-consumerism-in-health-care-increasing/

NCR Health. (2019, Jan 07). What’s next in healthcare consumerism. Health IT & CIO Report. Retrieved from https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/healthcare-information-technology/2019-what-s-next-in-healthcare-consumerism.html

Uchendu, O. C., Ilesanmi, O. S., & Olumide, A. E. (2013). Factors influencing the choice of health care providing facility among workers in a local government secretariat in southwestern Nigeria. Annals of Ibadan Postgraduate Medicine, 11(2), 87–95.

Yassini, S. M., Harrazi, M. A., & Askari, J. (2010). The study of most important factors influencing physician choice. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 5, 1945–1949. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2010.07.393