A paper by dillibe et al. (2025), examined primary data received from 555 US-based patients, who reported switching providers between 2018 and 2022. To analyze these figures, the authors used the important event technology (CIT). The CIT is asked to remember and describe the specific events or behaviors that contribute to significant consequences (in this case, the provider switching). The authors classified and analyzed to understand the major factors behind the decisions or actions. To learn more about CIT, see the details of AHRQ.
What did the authors find using this approach?
While most patients switch to providers for involuntary reasons (eg, rehabilitation), an important part of patients actively switchs in response to unsatisfactory service encounters, underlining the patient agency in improving quality.
Generally, the authors found 8 important events related to patient switching: service encounter failures, pricing, competitive attraction, discomfort, core service failures, involuntary switching, shared decision making breakdowns, and service environmental perception.
You can read full paper Here,
