Abstract
Background: Medical endoscope instruments are minimally invasive, and they are widely used to investigate symptoms or help to perform certain types of surgery. This study investigates and defines a comprehensive set of attributes, to measure the after-sales service of medical endoscopes. The set of attributes help customers communicate their real needs with suppliers, and guide suppliers to develop the right products and services to fulfil customer demands. Methods: Based on literature review and the findings from the Delphi study, we identified 5 factors (attributes) that best described the expectations on the after-sales service of medical endoscopes. Using conjoint analysis, a set of 16 combinations (also named as cards or profiles) of the factor levels were generated in orthogonal design and used to develop the questionnaire. We administered the cards to 65 medical staff and 56 medical engineers across 50 Chinese hospitals, asking them to assign a preference score to each card. The utility value of each factor level was estimated and attribute importance values were obtained.Results: Attribute importance and utility values of factor levels were analysed at the aggregate level, occupation level, and medical institution level. (1) At the aggregate level, the five attributes were ranked in the order of importance values, the most important one is “maintenance response” and the least important is “maintenance efficiency”. (2) Medical staff and medical engineers ranked the five attributes in the same order. However, medical staff paid more attention to "maintenance response" and medical engineers paid more attention to "maintenance quality". (3) At the medical institution level, primary hospitals paid more attention to "maintenance price", while tertiary hospitals paid more attention to "maintenance quality".Conclusions: In this study, the utility values and attribute importance that affected the after-sales service level of medical endoscopes were obtained using conjoint analysis. The research results were consistent with the actual market situation of medical endoscope service. In general, this study provides a more scientific solution for hospitals in choosing after-sales service of medical equipment, and it also helps manufacturers and suppliers improve the after-sales service.
The Economic Evaluation of the Winter Road Service Level by the Conjoint Analysis