Table 2.

Taxonomy and illustrative quotes for domains identified in patients’ hospital selection considerations.

Domains	Sub-domains and illustrative quotes
	Reputation of hospital “I’ve gone on the internet over the years and looked up and it’s like the best hospitals in the United States for the best survival rates for certain kinds of cancer treatment, always in the top five hospitals are—[my hospital name].“ – patient.
	Availability of satellite centers close to home “If we do radiation and chemotherapy, I can do that here at [local satellite center] as well. It’s really the flexibility, and the timing, and the location of the satellite centers that made it a lot more advantageous to do the way I’m doing it as oppose coming downtown for everything.” – patient.
Hospital factors
	Favorable prior experience with hospital “I think the most important thing is the quality of the surgery that I received when I had my kidney taken out and the quality of the surgery that I had when I had my lung resection. The doctors were so good. The surgery was so good. I felt like I couldn’t have gotten better anywhere in the world.“ – patient.
	Reputation of surgeon “He’s an expert at what he does, and he’s written papers on that cancer. And plus, he’s a teaching professor, as my doctor is. Not only do they know what they’re doing, but they’re doing the latest and the greatest. And how can you beat that?” – patient.
Team characteristics	Operative volume “Because I read several times, ‘Don’t ever have a surgeon work on your pancreas unless he’s done 150 Whipple procedures [laughter].’ So they’re like, make sure. Find out beforehand that your surgeon has done that.“ – patient.
	Prior experience with other team members “Radiation machine was broken. I was not impressed with that, and I didn’t like the social worker there. I didn’t like the doctor, and I wouldn’t go there myself.” – patient.
	From an existing care clinician “My primary care physician… recommended him. She said the local community hospital, [hospital’s name] the surgical team they have here is good.” – patient.
Referral or recommendation	From a new care clinician “I believe [surgeon] was a referral from maybe one of the clinicians at [hospital’s name] probably. I was in there for an [endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography].” – patient.
	From a non-clinician “My daughter has a very good friend from like 40 years ago and she happens to work for a lobbyist for a radiation oncologist, and she has a really good contact in the radiology department at [hospital’s name]. And she emailed him and he emailed back and said, ‘Anybody at the [center’s name] is excellent and you won’t go wrong no matter who you choose.’” – patient.
Travel distance from home to hospital	Prioritizing hospital proximity due to pragmatic concerns “It’s not as bad as going to [city name]. I mean that was part of why I didn’t want to go to [city name]. It’s a long way. And then coming out of surgery and you’ve got that drive home. And two hours on the [free way], with that kind of surgery, so-“ – patient.
	“We have… a small group of friends. They’re all going to want to come and visit. If [patient is] at [more distant hospital], that’s not going to happen. I’ve got to work every day. You know what it’s like. I don’t have a choice.” – caregiver.
	“Oh, yeah. I mean it takes me four hours to get to [city name]. No, I don’t know anybody there. But then I just stay here. Yeah, I have an apartment. I have family. My grandchildren live 15-minute walk away and they come by. There’s nothing like having family when you’re going through something.” – patient.
	Prioritizing perceived hospital quality over proximity “Driving’s not a problem. If not, let the ambulance take me. I don’t care. I’d rather go to a better facility than a worse facility. In other words, if there’s something better out there, I’d like that. I only got one life to live. And I don’t want to give it up too easily.” – patient.
Continuity of care	Access to existing medical records “They have access to my records right away. If they need to look at an EKG from six months ago, they have it. They don’t have to call somebody and say fax it to me. I did that because I figured every bit of information, whatever doctor, I think, has is just going to benefit me.” – patient.
Insurance considerations	Insurance approval “I have [insurance name], so in other words, when I was going to go to [hospital’s name], they didn’t want to do anything about anything until you show them [CT] scans. So I’ve gotten a [CT] scan at [hospital’s name] and by the time I got accepted to get the [CT] scan my appointment was canceled at [hospital’s name] and it took a kind of rollercoaster backwards.” – patient.