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Why do patients receive care from a short-term medical mission? Survey study from rural Guatemala
- Source :
- The Journal of surgical research. 215
- Publication Year :
- 2016
-
Abstract
- Background Hospital de la Familia was established to serve the indigent population in the western highlands of Guatemala and has a full-time staff of Guatemalan primary care providers supplemented by short-term missions of surgical specialists. The reasons for patients seeking surgical care in this setting, as opposed to more consistent care from local institutions, are unclear. We sought to better understand motivations of patients seeking mission-based surgical care. Methods Patients presenting to the obstetric and gynecologic, plastic, ophthalmologic, general, and pediatric surgical clinics at the Hospital de la Familia from July 27 to August 6, 2015 were surveyed. The surveys assessed patient demographics, surgical diagnosis, location of home, mode of travel, and reasons for seeking care at this facility. Results Of 252 patients surveyed, 144 (59.3%) were female. Most patients reported no other medical condition (67.9%, n = 169) and no consistent income (83.9%, n = 209). Almost half (44.9%, n = 109) traveled >50 km to receive care. The most common reasons for choosing care at this facility were reputation of high quality (51.8%, n = 130) and affordability (42.6%, n = 102); the least common reason was a lack of other options (6.4%, n = 16). Conclusions Despite long travel distances and the availability of other options, reputation and affordability were primarily cited as the most common reasons for choosing to receive care at this short-term surgical mission site. Our results highlight that although other surgical options may be closer and more readily available, reputation and cost play a large role in choice of patients seeking care.
- Subjects :
- Adult
Male
medicine.medical_specialty
Adolescent
Patient demographics
Population
Primary care
Health Services Accessibility
03 medical and health sciences
Young Adult
0302 clinical medicine
medicine
Humans
030212 general & internal medicine
education
Child
Aged
Quality of Health Care
Aged, 80 and over
education.field_of_study
030505 public health
business.industry
Surgical care
Infant
Medical Missions
Survey research
Health Care Costs
Middle Aged
Patient Acceptance of Health Care
Guatemala
Surgical clinics
Family medicine
Child, Preschool
Health Care Surveys
Surgical Procedures, Operative
Surgery
Female
Surgical diagnosis
Rural Health Services
0305 other medical science
business
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 10958673
- Volume :
- 215
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- The Journal of surgical research
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....03c0e5ab0477c9b25db885b25c9883c5