Introduction: Since the introduction of a market oriented structure in public health care patients are expected to make informed choices between health care providers. However, it is still unclear what patients base their decisions on. The objective of this literature study is to identify the personal, healthcare provider-related, logistic and financial factors which determine the patients’ choice for certain healthcare providers. More specifically, only determinants of choice for surgical hospital care in European and North-American countries are studied. Method: Articles were mainly derived from the Pubmed, Medline and Google Scholar databases. Search terms used were patient choice, provider, physician and hospital. Furthermore, 3 additional articles were provided by the supervisors and 8 articles were included by backwards referencing. After inclusion, the articles were analyzed by the simple approach. Results: 27 articles were taken into account for analyses. Personal factors that influence the patient´s choice for a certain provider are age, race, medical condition, educational level, earlier experiences and the advice of people in the social network of patients. Furthermore, provider related factors which often came forward were the expertise of staff, the number of services offered, reputation and the quality of care provided. Moreover, the type of organization and the size of hospitals have an impact on the choice. Important logistic aspects are the distance to the hospital, the waiting time before treatment and the travel options. Financial aspects which are considered in advance of choosing are the costs of treatment, the costs of travelling and the personal expenses. Conclusion: It can be concluded that many factors determine the patient’s choice. However, it is difficult to indicate the importance of all the factors found because often combinations of factors or interactions between factors determine the patient’s choice
