Characteristics of Electronic Word of Mouth and Its Impact on Patient’s Decision to Select Treatment Destination. A Case of Jordan

This study aimed to identify the characteristics of the electronic word of mouth, and its impact on the decision to choose the treatment destination from the point of view of private hospital patients in Jordan. The study sample consisted of (401) patients of private hospitals, where the researchers targeted three hospitals in Amman the capital of Jordan. The study concluded that there is an effect of the characteristics of the electronic word of mouth (trust, credibility, attractiveness, speed, interactivity, and ease of circulation) on the decision to choose the therapeutic destination. As for the characteristics of the electronic word of mouth, they collectively explained (76%) of the variation in the decision to choose the therapeutic destination. The researchers recommended several recommendations, the most important one is that Hospitals ion Jordan should work to resolve complaints received from service recipients; in order not to repeat the mistakes happened earlier in addition to paying attention to the dialogues and chats on the websites by the management of private hospitals, and by paying attention to answering the patients’ inquiries.