Informational Justice, Cognitive Trust, and Satisfaction: Purchasers’ Perspective of Healthcare Distribution Market

Purpose: We examined informational justice, cognitive trust, and satisfaction in healthcare distribution market and their associations within the physician–patient (provider-purchaser) relationship. Methodology: 253 valid survey samples collected from patients and used structural equation modelling for analysis. Findings: We postulated that (1) physicians’ informational justice has a positive impact on patients’ cognitive trust, (2) patients’ cognitive trust has a positive impact on satisfaction, and (3) patients’ perceived informational justice has a positive impact on satisfaction. Participants were 253 people who had visited a hospital in South Korea in the past year. Results confirmed that the presence of informational justice has a positive impact on patients’ cognitive trust and satisfaction in the physician–patient relationship. Additionally, once cognitive trust was built, it positively influenced patients’ satisfaction. We discussed the concept and the impacts of informational justice in light of our analyses regarding patients’ perceived cognitive trust and their satisfaction in the physician–patient relationship. Implications: These results emphasize the importance of ethics in healthcare, particularly physicians’ frankness and honesty when providing information to patients. Further, these findings present implications for physician education, as part of their training must involve building their patients’ cognitive trust as a prerequisite for developing patient satisfaction.