title: What factors determine the intention to use hospital report cards? The perspectives of users and non-users.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Hospitals report cards (HRC) are publicly available Internet websites that provide patients with quality-related information on hospitals and enable hospital comparisons. We aim to identify factors that explain the (intended) use of HRC, including differences between current users and non-users.
  
  
  METHODS
  Drawing on UTAUT (Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology), a cross-sectional study was conducted. Data were derived from an online survey with 1350 respondents and analyzed using structural equation modeling.
  
  
  RESULTS
  42% of the survey participants had already used HRC to search for a hospital. Performance expectancy, facilitating conditions, and attitude were found to be significantly related to HRC use intention, with notable differences between users and non-users. Effort expectancy and social influence did not show any significant effects in both subsamples.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Patients consider HRC to be a useful instrument and are willing to make the efforts it takes to use HRC. The greater effect of performance expectancy in the non-user sample (compared to the user sample) indicates a certain disillusion among users.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Health policy makers should focus on reviewing and restructuring the information content of HRC. In addition, coordinated efforts are still required to facilitate HRC access, especially for the 'less fortunate'.
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Policy and Management, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA; School of Business and Economics, Friedrich-Alexander-University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Nuremberg, Germany. Electronic address: Martin.Emmert@fau.de.
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Emmert
authors.affiliation: Department of Information and Process Management (IPM), Bentley University, Waltham, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wiener
mesh_terms: D003258:Consumer Behavior; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D006761:Hospitals / Q000592:standards*; D006801:Humans; D033182:Intention; D008297:Male; D019984:Quality Indicators, Health Care; D011787:Quality of Health Care / Q000592:standards*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
keywords: Healthcare quality; Hospital report cards; Online survey; Public reporting; UTAUT