A paper by Dillibe et al. (2025), examined primary data obtained from 555 US-based patients who reported switching providers between 2018 and 2022. To analyze these data, the authors used critical incident technique (CIT). CIT is implemented by asking participants to recall and describe specific events or behaviors that contributed to important outcomes (in this case, provider switching). The authors then categorized and analyzed to understand key factors behind decisions or actions. To learn more about CIT, see AHRQ’s description.
What did the authors find using this approach?
While most patients switch providers for involuntary reasons (e.g., relocation), a significant share of patients actively switch in response to dissatisfactory service encounters, underscoring patient agency in driving quality improvements.
More generally, the authors found 8 critical incident categories associated with patient switching: service encounter failures, pricing, competitor attraction, inconvenience, core service failures, involuntary switching, breakdown in shared decision-making, and service environment perception.
You can read the full paper here.
