Influence of patients’ life priorities on the formation of attitudes toward the organization of medical care provided in outpatient settings

This study analyzed the influence of patients’ life priorities through an anonymous questionnaire survey of 486 patients regarding their attitudes toward the organization of medical care provided in outpatient settings. During the survey, the examinees must arrange the proposed priorities in a hierarchical order of decreasing importance in relation to oneself. The main group (standard life priorities–the number of coincidences of individual life priorities among all structures was > 3) included 231 people. The control group (without standard life priorities–the number of coincidences of these individual life priorities among all structures was < 3) included 255 people. Despite the same integral assessments of the activities of medical organizations providing medical care in outpatient settings, recognized by the main and control groups, and higher ratings regarding the activities of the city (district) administration for the organization of medical care, patients who have standard life priorities had a higher frequency of claims regarding the organization of activities of individual departments of a polyclinic. Most often, such claims were made on the organization of the laboratory service, district service, and narrow specialists. The structure of life priorities had a certain influence on the attitude toward the criteria for choosing a medical organization. External factors, such as geographical accessibility and good reputation, and internal characteristics of a medical organization, such as the presence of competent specialists and a clear organization of work, were of greater importance to patients with standard life priorities. Professionalism and attention, as the main quality of doctors, were more appreciated by patients with standard life priorities. They also had more confidence in the opinions of real patients, more often trusted their experience of communicating with a doctor, and were less critical of reviews of virtual patients, ratings of doctors on the websites of medical organizations, and information presented in the media. Thus, the analysis of patients’ life priorities is an urgent task of public health as a potential opportunity for managerial influence.