Table 4 Overview of attributes, levels and results

1

Ahmed, Fincham

USA (Georgia)

Retail clinics: investigate the effects of cost of care and waiting time on care-seeking decisions at retail clinics or physician offices

1. Price ($59; $75), 2. Appointment wait time (same day; 1 day or longer), 3. Care setting–clinician combination (nurse practitioner in retail clinic; physician in private office), and 4. acute illness (urinary tract infection [UTI]; influenza)

appointment wait time

structure

2

Caldow et al.

Scotland

Models/provider of primary care: investigate patient opinion about the provision of nurse-led vs. doctor-led primary health care in the treatment of minor illness

1. Who you see (doctor vs. practice nurse), 2. Waiting time till appointment (no waiting time/2 days/4 days/8 days), 3. Length of consultation (5 min/10 min/20 min/30 min), 4. Continuity of health professional (yes vs. no), 5. Likelihood of having illness cured (75%/80%/85%)

who you see

structure

3

Cheraghi-Sohi et al.

England (Manchester)

Primary care (consultations) in general: assess patients’ priorities for a range of attributes of primary care consultations

1. Number of days wait for an appointment (same day/next day/2 days/5 days), 2. Cost of appointment to patient (£0,/£8/£18/£28), 3. Physician’s knowledge of the patient (the doctor has access to your medical notes and knows you well vs. the doctor has access to your medical notes but does not know you), 4. Patient perspective (the doctor is interested in your own ideas about what is wrong vs. the doctor is not interested in your own ideas), 5. Biopsychosocial perspective (the doctor asks about your social and emotional well-being as well as physical symptoms vs. the doctor asks about your physical symptoms only), 6. Shared decision making (the doctor involves you in decisions about treatment vs. the doctor does not involve you)

physician’s knowledge of the patient

process

4

Gerard

England

Appointment booking: determine the relative importance of factors that influence patient choice in the booking of general practice appointments for two health problems

1. Day of appointment (same day/next day/5 days later/10 days later), 2. Professional person (nurse/doctor, any available/doctor of choice), 3. Time of day of appointment (inconvenient vs. convenient), 4. Length of appointment (10 mins/20 mins)

professional person

structure

5

Gerard et al.

England

Out-of-hours services: Establish which generic attributes of general practice out-of-hours health services were important to members of the public

1. Time to making initial contact (1 min/ 5 min/10 min/15 min), 2. Time waiting for advice or treatment (5 min/20 min/1 h/5 h), 3. Informed of expected waiting time (no vs. yes), 4. Type of contact (by telephone/in person), 5. Professional person (specially trained nurse vs. doctor), 6. Chance OOH contact relieves anxiety (50% vs. 90%)

professional person

structure

6

Gerard et al.

England

Prescribing pharmacists: quantify patients’ preferences for new pharmacist independent prescribing services in general practice

1. Length of consultation (5 min/10 min/20 min), 2. Professional’s words and explanations about your medicines (difficult to understand vs. easy to understand), 3. Attention paid by professional to your views about medicines (appears not to listen vs. appears to listen), 4. Health review covers (high blood pressure only vs. high blood pressure and review of overall health)

attention paid by professional to your views about medicines

process

7

Gerard et al.

England

Nurse-led vs. Doctor-led primary care: identify and quantify patient preferences for both professions of prescribers and factors that influence choice of who to consult

1. Access (next day at surgery (NIP) vs. same day at WiC (NIP)/2 days later at surgery (doc) vs. next day at surgery (doc)) 2. Length of consultation (10/20/30/40 min (NIP) vs. 5/10/15/20 min (doc)), 3. Professional’s attention paid to your views on your problem/medicines (appears not listen vs. appears to listen), 4. ‘help offered’ (only advice provided vs. diagnosis and advice provided)

professional’s attention paid to your views on your problem/medicines

process

8

Hjelmgren, Anell

Sweden

Models/provider of primary care: examine which attributes are important when individuals choose between primary care models

1. Primary care work model (GP vs. primary care team), 2. Waiting time for non-emergency visits (2 days/4 days/7 days), 3. User charges (0 SEK/ 100 SEK/200SEK/300SEK), 4. Ability to choose provider (individual choice of provider (GP or team) vs. no choice), and 5. Degree of influence over the care received (large influence vs. limited influence).

degree of influence over the care received

process

9

Hole

England (Greater Manchester area)

Appointment booking: examine the preferences on the choice of GP appointments

1. Number of days wait for an appointment (same day/next day/2 days/5 days), 2. Cost of appointment to patient (£0,/£8/£18/£28) 3. Flexibility of appointment times (one appointment offered vs. choice of appointment times offered) 4. Physician’s interpersonal manner (warm and friendly vs. formal and businesslike), 5. Physician’s knowledge of the patient (the doctor has access to your medical notes and knows you well vs. the doctor has access to your medical notes but does not know you) 6. Thoroughness of physical examination (the doctor gives you a thorough examination vs. the doctor’s examination is not very thorough)

Thoroughness of physical examination

process

10

Lagarde et al.

England

Primary care (consultations) in general: explore the determinants of the choice of practice registration (especially the possibility of registering outside a patient’s neighborhood)

1. Practice is open on Saturday & Sunday (yes vs. no) 2. Practice is open at lunchtime (yes/never/sometimes), 3. Extended opening hours (yes vs. No), 4. How quickly you can normally be seen by a GP (same day/next day/a few days later/a week or more), 5. Whether the practice meets your specific health needs (yes vs. no), 6. How well the practice knows the health care services (previous experience with most of the health care providers in your neighborhood vs. no previous experience)

how quickly you can normally be seen by a GP

structure

11

Mengoni et al.

Italy (Tuscany region)

Primary care (consultations) in general: assess patients’ preferences for different attributes of GP consultation

1. Waiting time for the visit (0 min/90 min/180 min), 2. Involvement in decision making (complete/partial/no), 3. Amount of information (a lot of information/some information/a little information)

amount of information

process

12

Pedersen et al.

Denmark

Primary care (consultations) in general: investigate whether general practitioners know patients’ preferences regarding a number of organizational characteristics in general practice

1. Waiting time on the telephone (1 min/5 min/15 min/30 min), 2. Opening hours (no extended opening hours vs. open on Saturdays), 3. Waiting time to the appointment (same day/3 days/1 week/2 weeks), 4. Distance to the general practice (1 km/5 km /15 km/30 km), 5. Waiting time in the waiting room (5 min/10 min/20 min/30 min), 6. Consultation time (5 min/10 min/20 min/30 min), and 7. Whether the GP or assisting personnel performs routine tasks (GP vs. nurse)

waiting time to the appointment

structure

13

Philips et al.

“a Western European city”

Out-of-hours service: reveal the decision criteria of patients in choosing out-of-hours services

1. Type of consultation (hospital emergency department/general practitioner cooperative/home visit by the general practitioner on duty/pediatrician), 2. Waiting time between first contact or call and consultation (< 30 min/30-90 min / > 90 min), 3. Information about health problem and therapy (doctor does not give enough information vs. doctor gives enough information), 4. Accessibility of the service (location and phone number are not known vs. location and phone number are known), 5. Availability of technical equipment (available vs. not available), 6. Method of payment (immediate payment vs. deferred payment)

information about health problem and therapy

process

14

Rubin et al.

England (Sunderland)

Booking appointments: investigate patient preferences when making an routine appointment for a GP in different patient groups

1. Time to appointment (same day/within 48 h/4 days/10 days), 2. Choice of doctor (your choice of doctor/any available doctor), 3. Choice of time (your choice of time/at a specified time)

choice of doctor

structure

15

Seghieri et al.

Italy

Models/provider of primary care: elicit patient preferences for different primary care models

1. Waiting time for visit (0 min/90 min/180 min), 2. Primary care provider (own GP/primary care team/another GP), 3. Diagnostic facilities (a lot of diagnostic facilities/some diagnostic facilities/a few diagnostic facilities)

primary care provider

structure

16

Tinelli et al.

Scotland

Prescribing pharmacists: investigate patients’ preferences for an innovative combined prescribing-and-dispensing role for pharmacists in the management of drug therapies

1. Time spent travelling to and waiting in the surgery, consulting with the GP (0 min/30 min/50 min), 2. Time spent travelling to and waiting in the pharmacy, consulting with the pharmacist (0 min/20 min/40 min), 3. Chance of receiving the ‘best’ treatment (low/medium/high), 4. The amount of money you have to spend to get the drug (3£/7£/12£/20£)

chance of receiving the ‘best’ treatment

outcome

17

Tinelli et al.

Germany, England and Slovenia

Primary care (consultations) in general: inform public health policy on patients’ priorities when choosing health care in Europe and compare patients’ preferences in different European countries

1. ‘Information’ received from the GP (rarely/sometimes/most of the times/always), 2. ‘Booking time’ (next day/1 week/2 weeks/3 weeks), 3. ‘Waiting time’ in the GP practice (10 min/20 min/30 min/40 min), 4. ‘Listened to’ (rarely/sometimes/most of the times/always), 5. Being able to receive the ‘best care’ available for their condition (rarely/sometimes/most of the times/always)

being able to receive the ‘best care’ available for their condition

outcome

18

Turner et al.

England (Leicestershire and London)

Primary care (consultations) in general: estimate the relative importance to patients of continuity of care compared with other aspects of a primary care consultation

1. Who you consult (You consult a GP vs. a nurse), 2. Know & trust (who you do not know vs. who you know and trust), 3. Information about your medical history (has information about your full medical history vs. does not have information about your full medical history), 4. Waiting time (same day / 2 days/5 days/10 days)

information about your medical history

process