Adopting health practitioner rating websites: Assessing the influence of practitioners’ motivation and system perceptions

Mr Renato Ulpiano1,2, Professor Elisabeth  Wilson-Evered2, Associate Professor Stephen  Burgess2, Dr Scott  Bingley2, Dr Tristan Casey3

1Ladybug House, Mudgeeraba, Australia, 2Victoria University, Footscray, Australia, 3University of Queensland, St Lucia, Australia

In healthcare, the practitioner-patient relationship is shifting from service controlled whereby the practitioner decides on the patient’s healthcare, to patient centred care, where the patient is empowered, to make decisions. Modern healthcare design models view patients as more than passive recipients of healthcare services and instead expect patients to manage their own care and be accomplished in assessing service quality. This is especially true for NDIS participants.

Helping shape this shift is the increasing use of Online Rating  Websites (ORW) to provide feedback on health services. By contrast, ORWs are not commonly embraced by health practitioners or their professional associations. Nonetheless, in a competitive environment health practitioners will also need to attend to what clients are publicly communicating about their service. The aim of this research is to determine the motivational orientation of health practitioners to use such websites along with the role of their perceptions of the characteristics of a ORW. Together, the motivational and technology elements will be assessed in terms of their relative influence on ORW use by health practitioners. A conceptual model, which theoretically explains the relationship between motivation to use and intention to adopt ORWs, will be tested in a cross-sectional study. Participants are Australian health practitioners who will be surveyed using validated scales from proven theories. Structured Equation Modelling will estimate the model and the relative contribution of motivation and systems characteristics on the use of the ORW. The results will inform future research and theorising as well as health practitioners and professional associations about those factors critical for the adoption of ORWs.


Biography:

Renato co-owns and operates Ladybug House which is an allied health practice operating in Melbourne and on the Gold Coast. He is also completing doctoral research that investigates how health professionals will respond to the ever increasing online reviews. He has worked for organisations such as Telstra, Microsoft and recently Aconex. His customer facing experience in other industries has enabled him to apply consumer orientation to his customers that come through the clinic.

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