Becker's Clinical Quality & Infection Control

29 PATIENT EXPERIENCE 34% of providers don't reply to negative online feedback: 3 survey findings By Andrea Park A lthough the majority of healthcare providers worry about receiving negative online reviews from patients, more than 34 percent either choose not to respond to those reviews or have no process in place to do so, according to a PatientPop report. Here are three key findings from the report, in which 233 providers were surveyed about online reputation management: 1. Nearly half of those surveyed were very or extremely concerned about receiving negative reviews, with a total of 76 percent of provid- ers expressing at least some concern. 2. Despite these concerns, only a quarter of the surveyed providers have an official process in place to follow up with patients who leave negative reviews. Another 17 percent do not have a process in place but would like to implement one, while nearly 20 percent simply choose not to reply to negative feedback. 3. Additionally, providers that do monitor and respond to feedback typ- ically spend only minimal time doing so. More than 80 percent of those surveyed spend four hours or fewer monitoring feedback and reviews, and even more, almost 85 percent, spend four hours or fewer actually responding to that feedback. n Viewpoint: Patients can drive medical innovation By Anne-Marie Kommers P atients can play significant roles in medical innovation and fill gaps le by commercial industries, according to an op-ed in STAT by Harold DeMonaco, a visiting professor at MIT's Sloan School of Management in Boston, and Eric von Hippel, PhD, professor of management and technological innova- tion at the Sloan School. Five takeaways from the op-ed: 1. To understand the motivations and challenges of patient-innovators, Mr. DeMonaco and Dr. von Hippel worked with colleagues internationally to conduct a nationally representative survey in six countries and interview patient-innovator groups. 2. Up to 1 million people in the six countries said they had developed med- ical products for personal use. Patients were motivated by the realization that commercial industries had not yet filled a medical need. 3. Patient-innovators differed from industrial developers in three key ways: they dedicated their own time and money to developing a product, made the product freely available and let oth- ers test their design for improvements. 4. Patient innovations can some- times have safety issues, since federal agencies cannot regulate noncommer- cial activity. Yet, the authors say the government should support patient-in- novators because the potential benefits outweigh the risks. 5. The authors said they expect patient innovation to play a complementa- ry role in commercial innovation. Commercial developers cannot create a product to answer every patient's need, so patients can fill in industry gaps with the proper support. n Reunion of Oregon NICU nurses, former patients marks 40th year By Anuja Vaidya A yearly event at Springfield, Ore.-based PeaceHealth Sacred Heart Medical Center at RiverBend allows neonatal intensive care unit nurses to reconnect with the babies they cared for, according to The Register-Guard. The hospital's 40th annual NICU reunion saw around 550 attendees, in- cluding people who had received care in the NICU as babies and their families. The festivities included a dunk tank, inflatable water slide and bounce house. There was also a Build-A-Bear tent and people dressed in costume. "The NICU reunion is really a wonderful event that the hospital helps put on because it gathers families, and we can see these beautiful children healthy and happy and running like they're totally healthy and not having any physical problems," Maureen Beringer, a retired Peace- Health NICU nurse told The Register-Guard. Another attendee, the mother of a child born with a rare intestinal dis- ease in 2008, also told the publication that coming to the event allows her to meet her son's caregivers, as well as celebrate the fact that her son is alive. n

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