Explore How Online Healthcare Can Influence Willingness to Seek Offline Care.

Abstract

With the recent development of internet healthcare, many hospitals have laid out their online platforms. However, there have been some poor service levels and low quality. The frequency of such problems has led to a decline in patient satisfaction. Therefore, it is vital to explore how hospitals can improve user satisfaction and willingness to visit them offline by setting up an online presence. Most studies conducted so far have remained limited to the single dimension of online or offline healthcare, with few studies exploring the relationship between them. While a few studies have explored the impact of online service quality on willingness to seek offline care, they also face the problem of a single perspective of analysis. Therefore, this study constructs a multidimensional model of the factors influencing online healthcare users’ willingness to seek offline care by integrating the value-based adoption model and the stimulus–organism–response model. Through a partial least squares-structural equation modelling analysis of 283 valid samples, this study found that online doctor–patient interactions and service quality positively impact user perception. This paper explores the development path of online healthcare from a new theoretical perspective. In addition, the findings provide new guidelines for hospitals to achieve economic and social benefits.