Health IT, Hospitals, Patient Engagement

Vitals’ word analysis for 5k patient reviews of doctors reveals time as top concern (Infographic)

What were the most frequently used words in patient reviews of doctors?

The patient experience has become a high priority for hospitals and physicians. Websites providing for patient reviews of doctors and rating their treatment have become a pretty common part of physician scheduling websites. A word analysis of 5,000 recent patient reviews by Vitals to mark its six millionth review drew attention to the fact that “diagnosis” and “answers” are not nearly as important as “time,” “staff” and “office.”

Time is an issue that startups providing concierge care service from telemedicine to house calls have used to win over customers and make a case for their businesses. Of course medical professionals should be encouraged by the fact that “professional,” “great” and “caring” get mentioned frequently, although “rude” isn’t far behind.

A JAMA article published last year showed that the biggest factors impacting a person’s choice of physician were insurance coverage and location.

I think the biggest weakness of this analysis is the lack of context and it’s difficult to draw strong conclusions. The only one that seems safe to draw is that time caries a lot of weight and can influence the choices people make about the physicians they choose to see. It would be great if Vitals extends its service to telemedicine companies. I wonder which words will make the top 10 for those patient experiences in a few years’ time.

 

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