Patient ties to ambulatory care providers: the concept of provider loyalty.

A cognitive measure of provider loyalty is introduced, and results are presented comparing provider loyalty with traditionally used measures of patient ties for predicting interest in and choice of a new health care provider.

Abstract

This paper introduces a cognitive measure of provider loyalty. Correlates of provider loyalty are investigated, and results are presented comparing provider loyalty with traditionally used measures of patient ties for predicting interest in and choice of a new health care provider. Implications for planning and marketing new forms of ambulatory care delivery systems are discussed and directions for future research are suggested.