In 2013, Facebook started allowing users to post star-based ratings on organization’s official Facebook pages if the organization opts in. Researchers from Boston-based Massachusetts General Hospital used data from Hospital Compare on 30-day readmission rates and compared them with organizations’ ratings. They found that hospitals with lower rates of 30-day unplanned readmissions had higher Facebook ratings than those with higher readmission rates.
In fact, each one-star increase in a hospital’s Facebook rating was associated with a greater than five-fold increase in the likelihood it would have a low, rather than high, readmission rate.
“Since user-generated social media feedback appears to be reflective of patient outcomes, hospitals and healthcare leaders should not underestimate social media’s value in developing quality improvement programs,” said lead study author McKinley Glover, MD, a clinical fellow in Mass General’s Department of Radiology.
He added, “Hospitals should be aware that social media ratings may influence patient perceptions of hospitals and potentially their healthcare choices. Hospitals and other healthcare organizations should also be aware of the potential message they send by not using social media. Members of the general public should be encouraged to provide accurate feedback on their healthcare experiences via social media, but should not rely solely on such ratings to make their healthcare decisions.”
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