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THE IMPACT OF ONLINE ENVIRONMENT ON THE DECISION OF THE CONSUMER OF HEALTH SERVICES

Simona Bodog and Daina Lucia-Georgeta ()
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Daina Lucia-Georgeta: University of Oradea

Annals of Faculty of Economics, 2014, vol. 1, issue 2, 305-313

Abstract: The online environment has opened new opportunities for consumers of health services, both in terms of the need for information on identified health problem and the possibilities of solving them and choosing the desired health service, resulting in a significant impact on decision of the consumer of health services. The consumers of health services use the internet to get information on identified health problems both before consulting a health service or its buying decision, because of their desire to be informed when acquiring health service, and its subsequent purchase to verify the correctness of service received. In this context, the health care provider cannot create and promote his own desires and beliefs if he wants to be the top choice of the consumers of health services. This paper aims to analyze the impact of the online environment on the decisions of the consumer of health services. The study was conducted on a sample of 223 patients admitted to two public hospitals in Oradea. The patients were given a questionnaire with 20 items, which mainly focused on: information sources, accessing sites with medical content, the moment of accessing the site, verification of information and information from the online influence on their behavior. From the analysis it appears that the information sought by patients online are general, fewer patients frequently access sites of medical institutions, health care facilities or health blogs and forums. The decisions of the Consumers of health care services are influenced to a lesser extent by the information from the online environment, the decisive role in terms of making a decision represent the information received from the doctor. Finally, for the consumer of health care services is difficult to choose because, to some extent even if the needs are becoming increasingly difficult to satisfy a substrate remains related to the personality and mentality of each, of the personal factors regarding buying decision that cannot be changed as easily as it may seem at first glance.

Keywords: online environment; health; information; buying decision; health services; consumer of health services (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I11 M31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
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