Abstracts

Rationale: Hospital selection factor is the patients’ decision process. We investigated the hospital selection factors of patients with epilepsy, and compared the patients with medically intractable epilepsy and pharmacoresponsive epilepsy.

Methods: This is a questionnaire-based cross-sectional study that evaluated the patients with epilepsy at a university hospital. The patients with epilepsy asked to complete a series of questions including patients’ demographic information, occupational status, hospital- and patient-related factors related to the patients’ hospital selection.

Results: A total of 230 patients with epilepsy consisted of 66 patients with medically intractable epilepsy and 124 patients with pharmacoresponsive epilepsy were analyzed. Acquaintances were the primary information source for the patients with epilepsy to select a hospital, followed by information from the internet. None with pharmacoresponsive epilepsy gathered information from print media. Approximately 94% of the patients with medically intractable epilepsy had visited other medical centers. The most important factor to choose the hospital, the patients rated the score of 4 or more out of 5 for simple administrative procedures (4.03±0.82), the competence of clinicians (4.06±0.89), excellent equipment (4.04±0.85), and renown of the hospital (4.02±0.88).

Conclusions: This is the first study to analyze the hospital selection factors of patients with epilepsy in South Korea. This study may improve the medical system by showing the patients’ medical behavior of patients with epilepsy.

Funding: Please list any funding that was received in support of this abstract.: None.