The Search for the Health and Social Security: Experiences from Consumers Searching for Healthcare Services

Abstract

<p>Backgroud and Objective: People use different information services to select their healthcare services. It isimportant to collect and analyze user feedback from such sites to understand needs of the user and to develop these services. As such information services are usually designed, implemented and maintained by third parties, not the original service deliverers, we shortly discuss the concept of market middlemen. Furthermore, as such services are not easy to use but require a certain level of experience and work from the users, we also shortly review the discussion around eHealth literacy.</p><p>Study Design/Markets and Methods: Data was collected in year 2017 by the Contact Point for Cross-Border Healthcare through a web-based survey from consumers searching for healthcare services. Some these consumers are users of then Choosehealthcare.fi online service in Finnish Hoitopaikanvalinta.fi website, that now is renamed to EU-healthcare.fi and EU-terveydenhoito.fi in Finnish. Together feedback was collected from 93 respondents. We used thematic qualitative analysis to find themes that the respondents took up when answering the survey. We used pre-analyzed material by Contact Point for Cross-Border Healthcare and Frantic.</p><p>Results: The results show that the needs of the users are very varied, and information on many different issues are sought for. In general, the respondents found the amount of information to be overwhelming, and it was difficult to find answers to specific questions. More structured information will give users an opportunity to compare services between the different countries.</p>