Decision on Institutional Choice in the Healthcare Sector: Micro-empirical Evidences from West Bengal (India)

Abstract

An attempt has been made in this article to shed some light on the decisions of patients on their institutional choice in accessing healthcare services within micro empirical framework in the state of West Bengal, India. The determinants of such decisions are also recognized in this article. In conscientious, statistical methods are anticipated to frame the socio-economic and decisional variables, that influence the decision. Principal component analysis and ordered probit analysis have been deployed to scrutinize the same. It is observed that the economic status of the patients, their level of schooling, their income and some other decision variables have a strong influence on their access of healthcare institutions. The study has projected that intra-category and inter-category competition among available alternative service providers needs to be introduced and social entrepreneurship model in state-owned hospitals can be pioneered with due considerations.