Factors affecting physicians’ behaviors in induced demand for health services

Background and Aims: One of the controversial topics in the health economy is the theory of induced demand. Physicians as experts enjoy superior knowledge and information and can use their extra knowledge for persuading patients to use unnecessary healthcare. The objective of the present studyis to investigate the factors affecting on physicians’ behavior in induced demand using the experiences of the experts in the Isfahan University of Medical Sciences. Materials and Methods: The research is applied a qualitative method. Semi‑structured interview was used for data generation. Participantsin 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 the 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 the present study, 41 sub‑themes and three main themes were extracted. The three main themes included structural factors, factors due to statuses andbehaviors, and economic factors. Each of these themes had sub‑themes wh ich, for example, included the authority of physicians, competition among physicians, regulative and legal affairs, ethical factors, physician’s customer focus, and physicians’ tendency to maximizing profits. Conclusion: The results ofthe present study represent a comprehensive image of the reasons effective on physicians’ behaviors in occurring induced demand. The most obvious findings of this research included structural factors, factors due to statuses and behaviors and economic factors. In the domain of structural factors; improper supervision of medical indications, expectations of physicians to activate other medicalsections, physicians’ independency of insurance contracts, in the domain of factors due to statuses and behaviors, physicians’ authority in patients’ compliance, competition among physicians, physicians’ customer focus physicians’ insufficient knowledge and skills, lack of commitment to ethics, and in the domain of economic factors; physician’s tendency to maximizing profits, improper dependency ofphysicians and other health services providers are among the factors of occurring induced demand.

کلیدواژه ها:

Health services ، induced demand ، physicians