심리적 거리 중요도가 해외의료서비스의 선택에 미치는 영향

This paper investigates how the importance of psychic distance, geographic distance, and medical competence influence potential Chinese customers when they select a destination country for international healthcare services. We also explore how the seriousness of the customer’s illness affects their choice of healthcare service countries. We limited the international healthcare service countries to Chinese customers to the United States, South Korea, Thailand, Singapore, and India. We analyzed the data collected from 1,292 potential Chinese customers, using multinomial logit model. Results indicate that medical quality is the common important factor of destination choice in cancer, diabetes, cosmetic surgery, skin care. In addition, customers for cancer did not care about the cost medical care. They consider the quality, distance and trip time to determinant of choosing a countries. However, respondents considering treatment for relatively minor diseases are more likely to select countries, such as Korea, which has a similar cultural background.