Introduction: Many patients find themselves frustrated wasting time and money when searching for the right hand specialist, only to be referred to a different one. There has been little research evaluating patient decision making when choosing a hand surgeon. Specialists would benefit from learning how to optimize their practice to reach their appropriate patient population for maximum benefit and minimum resource waste, both for the patients and physicians. We therefore conducted a survey study to evaluate which factors patients consider important when choosing a hand surgeon, and if these factors differ based on patient demographics. Our hypothesis is that patients of differing age groups and gender will value different factors that they believe are most important when choosing their hand surgeon.
Methods: This was a cross-sectional survey study conducted at multiple sites in Suffolk County New York between January and February of 2021. A 5-question survey was given to all new hand patients seen by seven hand surgeons at our institution. The survey included questions on demographics, how the participants chose their hand surgeon and what factors influenced their decision. Descriptive and statistical data analyses were conducted.
Results: 303 patients completed the survey with a response rate of 51%. Most patients (87%), regardless of age or gender, found their hand specialist through a medical professional or family/friend referral, as compared to advertisements, social media, and insurance companies (p<0.05) . When ranking various factors, surgeon credentials and accepted insurance were statistically more likely to be rated first as compared to available appointment times, office location, social media information, online reviews, surgeon gender, surgeon nationality, or years of experience (p<.001). There were no significant differences between male and female patients and between different age groups when ranking these various factors.
Conclusions: Contrary to our hypothesis, patients regardless of their age or gender share similar reasons for choosing hand surgeons. At our academic institution in New York, most patients found their specialist through medical or family/friend referrals. Therefore, we recommend educating referring physicians about the practices of our specialty. Additionally, many practitioners spend valuable time and money on advertising their practices. As very few patients used advertisements to find their specialist, we caution similar practices against overspending on print and radio ads. Overall, this study helps clarify how patients choose their hand surgeon. Further research would benefit from expanding this study to private practice and rural settings throughout the country.
