Predicting the Potential Patients' Intention to Select Healthcare Service Providers: Application of Structural Equation Modeling Based on the Theory of Planned Behavior

Today, patients are more sensitive in selecting healthcare services than the past, and are more engaged in their healthcare process. Also, the characteristics of each health service provider are likely to affect the patients' behavior or intention to behave in selecting service providers.

To predict the intention of employees working at Shiraz University of Medical Sciences (SUMS), as potential patients, to select health service providers.

This cross-sectional applied study was carried out among 330 employees of various SUMS' sub-centers in 2016 using structural equation modeling (SEM). A standard questionnaire designed based on the theory of planned behavior (TPB) was used for collecting the required data. The collected data were analyzed by Warp-PLS 5.0 software.

The results of the model fitness in the public, private and charity sectors showed that these models were well fitted and the greatest associations were between the attitude towards the behavior and intention, the perceived behavioral control and intention, and also between the perceived behavioral control and intention in the studied sectors.

It seems that the positive attitude of the employees leads to their increased intention of selecting the public sector. In this regard, the University was recommended to take action to build trust among its employees and to create an atmosphere of empathy and respect in order to facilitate employees' use of services.