Using Telemedicine during the COVID-19 Pandemic: How Service Quality Affects Patients’ Consultation

Xiaochen Liu, Zhen Xu (), Xintao Yu and Tetsuaki Oda
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Xiaochen Liu: Graduate School of Technology Management, Ritsumeikan University, Ibaraki 567-8570, Japan
Zhen Xu: School of Communication, East China University of Political Science and Law, Shanghai 201620, China
Xintao Yu: School of Economics and Management, Liaoning University of Technology, Jinzhou 121001, China
Tetsuaki Oda: Graduate School of Technology Management, Ritsumeikan University, Ibaraki 567-8570, Japan

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 19, 1-17

Abstract: The COVID-19 epidemic put pressure on the traditional healthcare system and offline consultation methods. Telemedicine platforms provide a more convenient and safer channel for online health communication. Based on the signaling theory, our study explores the impacts of three dimensions of physicians’ service quality (need fulfillment, security, and responsiveness) on online patient consultation on telemedicine platforms. A negative binomial model was used to test cross-sectional data of 2982 physicians obtained from Haodf.com. The results show the following: (1) the need fulfillment dimension variables positively affect online patient consultation; (2) the security dimension variables positively affect online patient consultation; (3) the responsiveness dimension variables positively affect online patient consultation. Our results contribute to the theoretical aspect of signaling theory and service quality in the context of telemedicine platforms and have several practical implications for telemedicine platform physicians and platform operators.

Keywords: telemedicine platforms; signaling theory; patient consultation; service quality; health communication (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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