Objectives. To examine patient satisfaction with and recommendation of a hospital, with a special focus on the correlation of these measures to patient ratings of interpersonal and technical performance of the hospital. Design. Telephone survey of patients with four specific conditions after their discharge from hospitals. Setting. Accredited district teaching hospitals and above, nationwide in Taiwan. Participants. A total of 4945 patients from 126 hospitals diagnosed with or undergoing procedures related to stroke, diabetes mellitus, Caesarean section, or appendectomy were interviewed by telephone. Main outcome measures. Overall patient satisfaction and recommendation were measured by single-item questions. Interpersonal skills were measured by three items: doctors' explanation, attitude, and caring. Technical skills were measured by another three items: hospital equipment, clinical competence, and outcome of treatment. Results. Interpersonal skills were as influential or more influential than clinical competence on patient satisfaction for three of the four disease categories. In contrast, technical competence was a more influential predictor for recommendation for patients in all four disease categories. Conclusion. The preliminary results imply that a hospital with high percentage of patient satisfaction does not necessarily receive a high level of recommendation. This finding provides new insights for researchers and for hospital managers who devote resources exclusively for achieving the highest possible levels of patient satisfaction.

A low bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) rate is one of the factors associated with low cardiac arrest survival. This study aimed to assess knowledge, attitudes, and willingness towards performing CPR and the barriers for implementation of bystander-initiated CPR. Telephone interviews were conducted using an author-designed and validated structured questionnaire in Taiwan. After obtaining a stratified random sample from the census, the results were weighted to match population data. The factors affecting bystander-initiated CPR were analysed using logistic regression. Of the 1073 respondents, half of them stated that they knew how to perform CPR correctly, although 86.7% indicated a willingness to perform CPR on strangers. The barriers to CPR performance reported by the respondents included fear of legal consequences (44%) and concern about harming patients (36.5%). Most participants expressed a willingness to attend only an hour-long CPR course. Respondents who were less likely to indicate a willingness to perform CPR were female, healthcare providers, those who had no cohabiting family members older than 65 years, those who had a history of a stroke, and those who expressed a negative attitude toward CPR. The expressed willingness to perform bystander CPR was high if the respondents possessed the required skills. Attempts should be made to recruit potential bystanders for CPR courses or education, targeting those respondent subgroups less likely to express willingness to perform CPR. The reason for lower bystander CPR willingness among healthcare providers deserves further investigation.

Taiwan's health-care system allows patients to utilize specialty services without referrals by primary care providers. This discontinuity of care may lead to increases in future hospitalizations. This study aims to determine whether the discontinuity of care is associated with the risk of hospitalization. A secondary data analysis based on a claim data of a nationally representative random sample of diabetic patients in Taiwan. A usual provider continuity (UPC) index was developed—a ratio of the visits to the physician that subjects most usually see relevant to diabetes care to the total physician visits relevant to diabetes care—to investigate its association with the risk of hospitalization. Taiwan's National Health Insurance scheme from 1997 through 2002. Totally 6476 diabetic patients. None. Diabetes-related short-term and long-term ambulatory care sensitive condition (ACSC) admissions. Patients with ACSC admissions had significantly lower UPC scores compared with those without ACSC admissions. Using a Cox regression model that controlling for age, sex, severity of diabetes and the number of total visits, patients with low to medium continuity of care (UPC <0.75) were found to be significantly associated with increased risk of hospitalization as compared with patients with high continuity of care, especially for long-term ACSC admissions (relative risk: 1.336 [1.019–1.751]). Higher continuity of care with usual providers for diabetic care is significantly associated with lower risk of future hospitalization for long-term diabetic complication admissions. To avoid future hospitalization, health policy stakeholders are encouraged to improve the continuity of care through strengthening the provider–patient relationships.

Background: Research into interventions based on mobile health (m-Health) applications (apps) has attracted considerable attention among researchers; however, most previous studies have focused on research-led apps and their effectiveness when applied to overweight/obese adults. There remains a paucity of research on the attitudes of typical consumers toward the adoption of m-Health apps for weight management. This study adopted the tenets of the extended unified theory of acceptance and use of technology 2 (UTAUT2) as the theoretical foundation in developing a model that integrates personal innovativeness (PI) and network externality (NE) in seeking to identify the factors with the most pronounced effect on one's intention to use an artificial intelligence-powered weight loss and health management app. Materials and Methods: An online survey was conducted for Taiwanese participants aged ≥21 years from May 23 to June 30, 2018. Hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling. Results: In the analysis of 458 responses, the proposed research model explained 75.5% of variance in behavioral intention (BI). Habit was the independent variable with the strongest performance in predicting user intention, followed by PI, NE, and performance expectancy (PE). Social influence weakly affects user intention through PE. In multi-group analysis, education was shown to exert a moderating influence on some of the relationships hypothesized in the model. Conclusions: The empirically validated model in this study provides insights into the primary determinants of user intention toward the adoption of m-Health app for weight loss and health management. The theoretical and practical implications are relevant to researchers seeking to extend the applicability of the UTAUT2 model to health apps as well as practitioners seeking to promote the adoption of m-Health apps. In the future, researchers could extend the model to assess the effects of BI on actual use behavior.