"What can I trust": Exploring impact of dual-channel service review quality on patients' online healthcare choices.

Abstract

Online reviews are crucial for consumer decision-making, especially in online health communities (OHCs), where patients rely on reviews of physicians' services. This study aims to evaluate the quality of both offline and online service reviews and examine the impact of review quality on patients' online choices. This study developed models to evaluate the quality of dual-channel service reviews from OHCs. Based on signaling theory, we investigated how review quality affected patients' online choices. Data, including online and offline reviews of 1958 physicians, were analyzed using ordinary least squares regression to test the hypotheses. Dual-channel service review quality positively affected patients' online choices, with a negative synergistic effect between offline and online review quality. Physician engagement positively moderated the effect of offline review quality on patients' online choices. This study makes valuable theoretical contributions by providing models for evaluating dual-channel review quality and insights into patients' decision-making in OHCs. Healthcare platforms can use these models to evaluate reviews and promote high-quality reviews. Physicians can balance their efforts between offline and online services. Patients are encouraged to consider reviews from both channels and to provide authentic feedback to enhance transparency and trust.