Factors Influencing Patients’ Choice of a Joint Replacement Surgeon

TL;DR

This study explores what factors influence patients' decisions when choosing a joint replacement surgeon, focusing on aspects like reputation and insurance coverage.

Contribution

The study identifies key factors influencing patient choice in orthopedic surgery, including the role of institutional reputation and insurance network status.

Findings

Institutional reputation was rated as the most important factor by patients.

Insurance network status and surgeon experience were also highly valued.

Younger patients placed more importance on online reviews and social media presence.

Abstract

Introduction: Technology has undergone rapid growth over the past several decades, with the internet and social media becoming more available to individuals. Thus, the medical field has entered a new era where patients have increased access to information about their physicians. This has led to an evolving area of research seeking to determine the impact certain factors may have when patients choose where to receive their medical care. The primary aim of this study was to evaluate the importance of certain factors to new patients presenting to an orthopedic adult reconstruction clinic.

Methods: New patients presenting to an orthopedic adult reconstruction clinic at an academic medical center in a large metropolitan area from August 2024 to February 2025 were invited to complete an anonymous survey, with a total of 50 participants ultimately included. The survey consisted of demographic questions and Likert-type questions assessing selection factor importance. The importance of each factor was scaled according to five categories: (1) least important, (2) somewhat important, (3) moderately important, (4) very important, and (5) most important.

Results: Factors considered most important to the study participants included the reputation of the institution (mean: 4.1, standard deviation (SD): 0.9), if the surgeon had been in practice for more years (mean: 3.8, SD: 1.0), and if the provider/hospital was in the patient’s insurance network (mean: 3.7, SD: 1.5). There were no significant differences between responses when comparing the patients ≥65 years of age and those <65 years.

Conclusions: Institutional reputation, the number of years the surgeon has been in practice, and insurance coverage were important factors to patients when selecting an adult reconstruction surgeon. While not significant, younger patients found online reviews and social media presence of their surgeon to be more important compared to older patients.

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