Facteurs influençant le choix d’un établissement de soins de santé par la patientèle dans la ville de Lubumbashi

Abstract

There is increasing competition in the health care supply market in the Democratic Republic of Congo, as in other countries around the world, pushing hospital to develop strategies to remain attractive to the increasingly patient demand which become increasingly picky. The purpose of this study is to examine the decision-making process by which consumers who feel the need for a health care service choose a health care facility from among many other facilities in the city of Lubumbashi.  A descriptive study of the determinants of consumer choice in health care was conducted in both public and private hospitals.  The results indicate that the decision-making process for choosing a health care service involves five essential steps influencing consumer behavior. In addition, data that confirmed the influence of exogenous variables on the behavior of hospital users in terms of the choices they must make in advance. These are the perceived quality of care delivery, reception and quality of hospital infrastructure (87.27% of model’s explanatory power), followed by the availability of specialized services, the cost of benefits and the physicians ability to listen and respond (65.84% of model’s explanatory power). Since hospital attendance in this study was considered to be an endogenous variable, it allowed us to perform the likelihood tests and the determination coefficient (R²=0.746 or 74.6% explanation of the endogenous variable by exogenous variables). The study points to the need for hospitals to implement patient satisfaction mechanisms through a management-led, quality-of-health-care approach in order to achieve patient loyalty.