JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Online medical consultation (OMC) optimizes health system performance by enhancing service efficiency and improving healthcare accessibility. It is primarily used in areas such as disease-related advisory services and post-diagnosis care management, although its widespread adoption has yet to be achieved.

Objective:

This study aims to analyze inpatients’ preferences, relative importance, and willingness to pay (WTP) for OMC attributes.

Methods:

This study employed a discrete choice experiment (DCE) to examine inpatients’ preferences for 7 attributes of OMC. Data were collected through face-to-face surveys conducted between June and November 2023 and were analyzed using mixed logit model. Based on the results of the mixed logit model, the relative importance was derived by calculating the difference between the utility values of the highest and lowest levels of each attribute as a percentage of the total utility range; the willingness to pay (WTP) was estimated by computing the ratio of the coefficients of non-monetary attributes to the coefficient of the monetary attribute.

Results:

At a significance level of 0.05, inpatients were significantly more likely to choose doctors with higher professional titles, higher-level hospitals (particularly provincial Class A tertiary hospitals), shorter waiting times, higher patient satisfaction, more user-friendly processes, stronger perceived privacy and security (medium levels were not a significant factor), and lower costs. Inpatients also exhibited a higher WTP, with the exception of moderate levels of privacy and security. Attributes were ranked in descending order of importance as follows: hospital level (34.35%), patient satisfaction (19.14%), doctor’s professional title (16.87%), platform usability (10.08%), fee (9.04%), privacy and security (5.42%), and waiting time (5.1%).

Conclusions:

Hospitals should focus on developing OMC platforms that are user-friendly, inclusive, and equipped with transparent evaluation systems. The government needs to clearly define the functional scope of OMC according to different hospital tiers and support its implementation by increasing investment, implementing dynamic pricing, exploring gradual inclusion in medical insurance reimbursement, and strengthening data security protections.