Can you model growth of trust? A study of the sustainability of a rural community health centre in North India

Trust in the service provided by any health facility is of vital importance to its sustainability, whether it is a community clinic in a rural area of a developing country or an international telemedicine service. Community health centres can be used as a means of delivering highly accessible, low-cost health service in the developing world. A major strategic issue for planners of such centres is the expected level of uptake of services throughout a region and its effect on sustainability of any facility. In this study of a clinic in rural north India, Monte Carlo simulation is used in modelling the spatio-temporal spread of usage of the service. Trust in the provider is built both through word-of-mouth contacts and previous development activities: our study contributes to the literature with a practical application of trust modelling. Journal of Simulation (2015) 9(2), 170–181. doi:10.1057/jos.2014.31; published online 9 January 2015