Study On The Influence Of Medical Channel Integration Quality On The Patient Use Of Online Medical Services

[Purpose] Under the background of China’s new medical reform and Internet plus health strategy,online medical services have gradually developed and become a new channel for providing medical services.To give full play to the advantages of online medical services and make online medical services provide better services for patients further,it is necessary to study the impact of different medical services channels integration,especially the integration quality,on the use of online medical services.Therefore,this paper aims to study the impact of integration quality of different medical services channels on the patient use of online medical services.[Methods] Based on the theoretical framework of “quality-value-behavior”,a theoretical research model is constructed.Four dimensions of medical service channel integration quality are antecedent variables,four dimensions of patient perceived value are mediating variables and patient use of online medical service is dependent variables.In this paper,313 answers from users who use different medical service channels are collected by survey method,and the research hypotheses are tested by structural equation modelling.[Results] The analysis results show that,towards impact of medical service channel integration quality on patients’ perceived value,the effect of transparency of service allocation on utility value(β=0.104,P=0.156),the effect of breadth of channel selection on convenience value(β=0.116,P=0.078)and the effect of consistency of content on utility value and monetary value(β=0.101,P=0.27 and β=0.058,P=0.442)are weak and insignificant.In addition,all the research hypotheses are supported.To be specific,the effect of service transparency on social support value,convenience value and monetary value,the effect of channel selection breadth on social support value,utility value and monetary value,the effect of content consistency on social support value and convenience value,and the effect of process consistency on social support value,convenience value,utility value and monetary value all support the research hypotheses.For the effect of patients’ perceived value on online medical service use,the path analysis results show social support value,convenience value,utility value and monetary value can influence online medical service use.[Conclusions] In summary,the four dimensions of medical channel integration quality can positively influence the use of online medical services through patient perceived online value.Therefore,conducting omni-channel management for medical institutions,strengthening the integration of different medical service channels and improving the different medical service channels integration quality play an important role in improving patients’ perceived value and promoting patients’ use of online medical services,then promoting the implementation of the Internet plus health strategy.