Would you zoom with your doctor? A discrete choice experiment to identify patient preferences for video and in-clinic consultations in German primary care

Introduction: 

The popularity of video consultations in healthcare has accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite increased availability and obvious benefits, many patients remain hesitant to use video consultations. This study investigates the relative importance of the consultation mode compared to other attributes in patients’ appointment choices in Germany. 

Methods: 

A discrete choice experiment was conducted to examine the influence of appointment attributes on preferences for video over in-clinic consultations. A total of 350 participants were included in the analysis. 

Results: 

The level of continuity of care (46%) and the waiting time until the next available appointment (22%) were shown to have higher relative importance than consultation mode (18%) and other attributes. Participants with fewer data privacy concerns, higher technology proficiency, and more fear of COVID-19 tended to prefer video over in-clinic consultations. The predicted choice probability of a video over a typical in-clinic consultation and opting out increased from <1% to 40% when the video consultation was improved from the worst-case to the best-case scenario. 

Conclusion: 

This study provides insight into the effect of the consultation mode on appointment choice at a time when telemedicine gains momentum. The results suggest that participants preferred in-clinic over video consultations. Policymakers and service providers should focus on increasing the level of continuity of care and decreasing the time until the next available appointment to prompt the adoption of video consultations. Although participants preferred to talk to their physician in person over consulting via video per se, the demand for video consultations can be increased significantly by improving the other appointment attributes of video consultations such as the level of continuity of care.