Abstract
ObjectivesTo evaluate patients’ sense of responsibility to healthcare providers and to determine its predictors using on a national sample in China.MethodsWe conducted a national cross-sectional survey in China with a stratified cluster sample of patients treated in 77 hospitals between July 2014 and April 2015. Patients’ sense of responsibility to healthcare providers was measured with four questions assessing patients’ perceptions regarding their responsibilities to respect doctors, respect nurses, coordinate with health professionals, and comply with hospital rules. Predictors included patient sociodemographic characteristics and their past hospitalization experience.ResultsSmall proportions of respondents reported that they perceived having no responsibility to respect doctors (8.9%), respect nurses (7.9%), comply with hospital rules (6.7%), or coordinate with health professionals (6.3%). Multivariate regression analyses showed that the strongest predictor of patients’ sense of responsibility to healthcare providers was patinets’ trust in health professionals, followed by patients’ education level. Familiarity with healthcare professionals and past hospitalization frequency were inversely associated with patients’ sense of responsibility to healthcare providers.ConclusionsAlthough only a small proportion of the patients reported feeling no or low sense of responsibility to healthcare providers, the lack of respect and collaboration from these patients can negatively affect patient-provider relationships. Healthcare administrators need to communicate clearly with the patients and the public about the role of patients and the limitations of medicine in order to instill a sense of patients’ responsibility.
Highlights
In the past several decades, fundamental social changes in China have resulted in increasing empowerment of individuals, creating a surge in rights-based movements, especially for the rights of consumers [1,2,3]
Responsibility, the counterpart of rights, has not received the same attention as individuals adapted to the new consumerism culture. This phenomenon is reflected by the fact that patients are concerned about their rights as consumers without a balancing sense of responsibility to healthcare providers [4], which has resulted in the deterioration of patient–provider relationships
Previous studies on patient-provider relationships have placed an emphasis on the responsibility of healthcare providers to patients in the medical treatment process [8,9,10,11,12], including improvement of professional skills and quality of healthcare services, and informing and involving patients in their medical decisions
Summary
In the past several decades, fundamental social changes in China have resulted in increasing empowerment of individuals, creating a surge in rights-based movements, especially for the rights of consumers [1,2,3]. This phenomenon is reflected by the fact that patients are concerned about their rights as consumers without a balancing sense of responsibility to healthcare providers [4], which has resulted in the deterioration of patient–provider relationships. Without a sense of patients’ responsibility, the information environment might further impair the mutual understanding between patients and providers. Some scholars have argued that patients should have responsibilities that include expressing respect and gratitude to the providers of health care [16,17,18,19]; empirical data are limited regarding patients’ sense of their responsibility to healthcare providers
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