LITERATURE REVIEW

Literature Review

Literature Review

Introduction

Americans are increasingly concerned with the US health care system. According to an independent public opinion survey by the Harris Poll, 50 percent of Americans believe the US health care system is worsening due to the spread of managed care and 54 percent believe that managed care harms the quality of care they receive (Taylor 2003). Of particular concern is patients' opportunity to choose their physician. While “freedom of choice” is a fundamental and coveted American belief, many people believe freedom of choice does not exist within a managed health care system (Ross 2003).

Consumers from across the nation have voiced grave concerns about the increased restrictions on patients' opportunities to select their doctor. One effort to restrict freedom of choice in New York City's East Harlem created enormous political fallout that ended the program before it was implemented (Temkin- Greener and Winchell, 2001). In Washington state, the Coalition for Patient Choice delivered 240,000 registered voters' signatures to the Secretary of State's Office to place an initiative on the ballot that would allow people to choose their own doctor. In a health care survey of 600 Massachusetts residents, 51 percent of the respondents indicated “very serious” concern about losing the right to choose their doctor (Kiley and Company, 2003).

While the freedom to choose a physician is a major consumer concern, it certainly is not the only concern. Patient health outcomes resulting from managed care treatment are also a serious issue. Many patients perceive frequent negative health outcomes in managed health care. According to a public opinion poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation/Harvard University (2004), 48 percent of Americans reported personal problems with managed care or knew someone who had experienced a negative healthcare outcome. Additionally, a poll by KPMG Peat Marwick (2004) found that 18 percent of healthy individuals and 29 percent of people in fair or poor health felt that the quality of health care had diminished during the previous three years.

Given the public's widespread concern with not having the chance to select a physician, coupled with the growing perception that the quality of health care is diminishing, the authors of this manuscript posed the following research question: “How does a patient's freedom to choose a physician and his/her preference for a specific physician impact on that patient's satisfaction with the health care provided?” In an attempt to answer that query, the authors began with a review of the literature related to patient choice, patient preferences, and health outcomes.

Literature Review (Historical Progression)

The health care literature contains a handful of studies that specifically address the impact of patient choice on patient satisfaction. For example, Glassman and Glassman (2001) found that women used personal experience and peer recommendations to select a physician, and patient satisfaction was determined primarily by physician-controlled factors such as providing sufficient relevant information about what to expect during pregnancy and offering continuity of care. Manthei et al. (2007) manipulated patients' choice of health care providers in a community mental health center and then measured patient ...