As physicians and hospitals receive more online reviews — both positive and negative — hospital leaders can view this feedback as a chance to improve their services, a health systems management professor wrote in a STAT op-ed.
Here are five insights from the op-ed, written by Francis Fullam, assistant professor of health systems management at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago:
1. Mr. Fullam discusses Care Opinion, an online platform that allows patients in the U.K. to share their healthcare experiences. On the Care Opinion site, patients, family members, caregivers and hospital staff are encouraged to provide feedback.
Healthcare staff can see comments and feedback and reply to patients online almost immediately. Additionally, the public can follow the story online and see how responsive the hospital or physician is and whether they make changes. "The key here is transparency: the ability for healthcare professionals to respond to patients' comments and for the public to see those responses and any corresponding changes," Mr. Fullam said.
2. At one U.K. hospital, patient stories posted on Care Opinion revealed a need for the mental health services clinic to expand after-hours care. "Having that direct contact with people who tell their story provides a lot of detail that otherwise would not be understood," wrote the clinic's associate medical director. "It becomes a constructive and collaborative process."
3. More than 100 large U.S. health systems voluntarily collect and report online patient comments and reviews, usually of physicians, but it is unclear how many systems use the information to improve services, Mr. Fullam wrote. "The result is that many health systems are missing an opportunity to learn from constructive insights that only patients can provide," he said.
4. Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, where Mr. Fullam works, was among the first health systems to publicly share patient ratings and comments on its website.
"Since establishing this process, the hospital's overall outpatient survey scores related to the quality of provider communication have increased significantly," Mr. Fullam said. "Although Rush goes a bit further than most, posting comments is not the same as having a dialogue with patients when they talk about their healthcare experiences online."
5. U.S. health systems can follow a model like Care Opinion, but it would take work, such as improving solicitation of patient feedback by asking deeper questions that lead to more complete, actionable responses, Mr. Fullam said.
"Fundamentally, though, [health systems] would have to accept the risk of exposing themselves to uncensored public comments — positive and negative — and being held accountable for how they respond," Mr. Fullam wrote. "It's an unnerving prospect. But it's also a risk that hospitals and health systems should take."