Work

The elicitation of patient preferences for hip replacement surgery: a discrete choice experiment

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: BACKGROUND: The calculation of aggregated composite measures is a widely used approach to reduce the amount of quality-related data on hospital report cards (HRCs). This study aims to elicit patient preferences for hospital choice concerning publicly available hospital quality information for total hip replacement surgery. The results may assist in the development of weighted composite measures for elective hip replacement, which facilitates a conscious selection of the hospital. METHODS: We collect primary survey data on a sample of 364 randomly selected users of the German HRC "Weisse Liste" (WL) (4/5 2023). The key attributes for hospital choice are based on the information provided in WL. We run various model specifications to identify patient preferences, allowing the analysis of unobserved preference heterogeneity. RESULTS: ). Patients consider the "Quality of treatment" (26.95%; level range 1.734) and "Number of cases treated" (24.78%; level range 1.594) to be the most important. In contrast, "EndoCert Certificate" (17.50%; level range 1.126), "Equipment and qualification" (15.83%; level range 1.018), and "Recommendation from other patients" (14.94%; level range 0.960) remain less important. We find no evidence for unobserved heterogeneity regarding the preferences for hospital choice. CONCLUSION: Based on our findings, HRC users value publicly available hospital quality information for elective hip replacement differently. These differences should be taken into account when calculating aggregated composite measures. Our results may allow the calculation of a weighted aggregate composite measure from the perspective of HRC users.

Source: BMC Health Services Research

DOI: 10.1186/s12913-025-12393-6

Authors: Stefan Rohrbacher, Martin Emmert

Institution: University of Bayreuth

Language: English

Topic: Patient Satisfaction in Healthcare

Subfield: General Health Professions

Field: Health Professions

Domain: Health Sciences

SDG: Good health and well-being

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $3,290