Views of health system experts on macro factors of induced demand.
BACKGROUND
The probability and severity of effects of induced demand are because of the interaction between a range of factors that can affect physicians and patients behavior. It is also affected by the laws of the markets and organizational arrangements for medical services. This article studies major factors that affect the phenomenon of induced demand with the use of experts' experiences of the Isfahan University of Medical Sciences.


METHODS
The research is applied a qualitative method. Semi-structured interview was used for data generation. Participants in this study were people who had been informed in this regard and had to be experienced and were known as experts. Purposive sampling was done for data saturation. Seventeen people were interviewed and criteria such as data "reliability of information" and stability were considered. The anonymity of the interviewees was preserved. The data are transcribed, categorized and then used the thematic analysis.


RESULTS
In this study, thematic analysis was conducted, and 77 sub-themes and 3 themes were extracted respectively. The three main themes include infrastructural factors, social factors, and organizational structural factors affecting induced demand. Each of these also has some sub-themes.


CONCLUSIONS
Results of this research present a framework for analyzing the major causes of induced demand. The causes identified here include complexity of medicine, information mismatch between service providers and consumers, clinical uncertainty, false beliefs, advertisements, insufficient supervision, scarcity of clinical guidelines, weakness of education system, and ignorance of medical ethics. These findings help policymakers to investigate the induced demand phenomenon clear-sighted.
Department of Healthcare Management, Faculty of Management and Medical Informatics, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran.
Elahe
E
Khorasani
Department of Health Services Management, Social Determinate of Health Research Center, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran.
Mahmoud
M
Keyvanara
Department of Healthcare Management, Health Management and Economic Research Center, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran.
Saeed
S
Karimi
Department of Health Services Management, Social Determinate of Health Research Center, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran.
Marzie Jafarian
MJ
Jazi
Health system; induced demand; macro factors