Observational studyBMC health services research2017
Hospital choice in Germany from the patient's perspective: a cross-sectional study.
Observational study in BMC health services research, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 31 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
31 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 95 citations in OpenAlex.
- Pooled it
- Are patients willing to accept longer travel times to decrease their risk associated with surgical procedures? A systematic review.BMC public health · 2020Pooled it
- Evaluation of a new design solution for the visualisation of a risk-adjusted hospital performance comparison: results of an end user-centred mixed methods study.BMC medical informatics and decision making · 2026Article
- Information sources as determinants of use of formal long-term care: a cross-sectional study in Taiwan.BMC health services research · 2025Article
- Inter-regional patient outmigration to Seoul in South Korea: the role of regional healthcare quality perceptions.BMC health services research · 2025Article
- Article
- The effect of public reporting of acute myocardial infarction on the choice of hospital.PloS one · 2025Article
- Analysis of factors influencing the choice for a centre for obstetrical and gynaecological patients.Archives of gynecology and obstetrics · 2024Article
- Quality-assured treatment in certified cancer center networks in upper Franconia, Germany: a population-centered retrospective cohort analysis based on data of the Bavarian cancer registry.BMC health services research · 2024Article
- Exploratory analysis of factors influencing hospital preferences among the Lebanese population: a cross-sectional study.BMJ open · 2024Article
- The elicitation of patient and physician preferences for calculating consumer-based composite measures on hospital report cards: results of two discrete choice experiments.The European journal of health economics : HEPAC : health economics in prevention and care · 2024Article
- Incidence of postoperative complications is underestimated if outcome data are recorded by interns and first year residents in a low volume hospital setting.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Adherence to Antibiotic Prescription Guidelines in Four Community Hospitals in Germany.Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- [Comparison of hospital rating websites among each other and with data from hospital quality reports and quality assurance based on routine data].Urologie (Heidelberg, Germany) · 2024Article
- Intersectoral cooperation between university hospitals and physicians in private practice in Germany- where the potential for optimization lies.BMC health services research · 2024Article
- Separating the wheat from the chaff: How to measure hospital quality in routine data?Health services research · 2024Article
- Referring physicians' intention to use hospital report cards for hospital referral purposes in the presence or absence of patient-reported outcomes: a randomized trial.The European journal of health economics : HEPAC : health economics in prevention and care · 2024Review
- Healthcare service use in paediatric inflammatory bowel disease: a questionnaire on patient and parent care experiences in Germany.BMC gastroenterology · 2023Article
- Health service behaviors of migrants: A conceptual framework.Frontiers in public health · 2023Article
- [Effects of statutory quality assurance in acute inpatient care].Bundesgesundheitsblatt, Gesundheitsforschung, Gesundheitsschutz · 2022Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundIn many countries health policy encourages patients to choose their hospital, preferably by considering information of performance reports. Previous studies on hospital choice mainly have focused on patients undergoing elective surgery. This study examined a representative sample of hospital inpatients across disciplines and treatment interventions in Germany. Its research questions were: How many patients decide where to go for hospital treatment? How much time do patients have before admission? Which sources of information do they use, and which criteria are relevant to their decision?
methodsCross-sectional observational study covering 1925 inpatients of 46 departments at 17 hospitals in 2012. The stratified survey comprised 11 medical disciplines (internal medicine, gynaecology, obstetrics, paediatrics, psychiatry, orthopaedics, neurology, urology, ENT and geriatrics) on 3 hospital care levels representing 91.9% of all hospital admissions to inpatient care in Germany in 2012. The statistical analysis calculated the frequency distributions and 95% confidence intervals of characteristics related to the hospital choice.
results63.0% [60.9-65.2] of patients in Germany chose the hospital themselves, but only 21.1% [19.3-22.9] had more than one week to decide prior to admission. Major sources of information were personal knowledge of hospitals, relatives, outpatient health professionals and the Internet. Main criteria for the decision were personal experience with a hospital, recommendations from relatives and providers of outpatient services, a hospital's reputation and distance from home. Specific quality information as provided by performance reports were of secondary importance.
conclusionsA majority of patients in the German health system choose their hospital freely. Providers of outpatient health care can have an important "agent" function in the quality-oriented hospital choice especially for patients with little time prior to admission and those who do not decide themselves. Hospitals have an impact on patients' future hospital choices by the treatment experience they provide to patients.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.