Issue link: https://beckershealthcare.uberflip.com/i/1539852
14 PATIENT & CAREGIVER EXPERIENCE 'Staff' vs. 'they': Words that indicate patient experience By Paige Twenter A n analysis of more than 1 million online reviews about U.S. healthcare facilities found a strong correlation between the word "staff " and positive reviews, whereas "they" is associated with negative reviews. Standardized patient experience surveys — such as those offered by the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems or Press Ganey — have fixed-response questions, which could constrain a patient's story. Online reviews, however, offer "patient-centered, unfiltered and organic content," according to the study published Aug. 1 in JAMA. To evaluate these patient experience narratives, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia examined 1,099,901 online reviews posted between 2017 and 2023. e dataset included 138,605 U.S. healthcare facilities. Yelp was chosen because it is "one of the most popular online-review forums, with more than 244 million users and approximately 73 million unique visitors daily," according to the study. Researchers analysed words and phrases most associated with positive (four or five stars) and negative reviews (one or two stars). e median rating was 3.1 stars, with 46.3% of reviews rated as negative and 50.1% as positive. For hospitals, the median rating was 2.44 stars. e word "and" was most correlated with positive reviews. Other common words in four- and five-star reviews included "great," "very," "highly," "recommend," "friendly," "thank," "professional," "Dr," "staff," "kind" and "knowledgeable." e study also found the word "not" was strongly correlated with negative reviews, as well as "told," "said," "no," "rude," "they," "don't," "then," "worst," "call," "asked," "if," "hours," "told me" and "because." Relieving patients' anxiety was a common theme in positive reviews, resulting in "nervous" and "scared" being correlated with four- and five-star reviews, according to a Penn Medicine news release. e way healthcare facilities measure and act on patient experience is oen time consuming, according to Anish Agarwal, MD, senior study author and chief wellness officer of Penn Medicine's emergency medicine department. In the release, Dr. Agarwal said, "If the real-time data from online reviews could be incorporated into tools that are easily viewed by health systems and their providers, they could make almost immediate changes for more positive experiences." n EZ Effort Mobile Lifts The Next Generation of Lifting is Here FEATURING • 500, 750, & 1,000 lb. weight capacities • Integrated display in the handle • Reduced push/pull levels • Lithium ion batteries