Becker's Clinical Quality & Infection Control

35 PATIENT EXPERIENCE Healthgrades, MGMA release analysis of 7M patient reviews: 5 takeaways By Alyssa Rege N onclinical factors are among the most important factors patients take into consideration when rating their provid- ers, according to a new analysis conducted by Healthgrades and the nonprofit Medical Group Management Association released March 28. e organizations examined nearly 7 million patient reviews and comments submitted about providers by Healthgrades visitors. One of the largest analyses of its kind, the goal of the en- deavor was to discern how patients viewed their physician aer a medical appointment. Here are five takeaways from the analysis. 1. More than 50 percent of patients cited non- clinical factors, such as compassion, comfort, patience, personality and bedside manner, as an important part of their interaction. Roughly one in four patients' comments (23 percent) referenced factors such as knowl- edge, time, insurance, appointment schedul- ing and communication. 2. While the analysis did not find a significant difference in how patients rated their provid- ers by gender, researchers discovered female patients tended to rate their male providers slightly more favorably than male patients rated their female providers. 3. e analysis determined patient feedback of their clinicians to be overwhelmingly positive. e average physician received a four-star rating according to Healthgrades' five-star rating system. 4. With regard to Healthgrades' open-com- ment section, one of the biggest factors patients mentioned was the amount of face- to-face time their physician spent with them and their willingness to answer questions, list concerns and ensure patients fully under- stood their condition or diagnosis. 5. Among both the positive and negative reviews listed on Healthgrades, one of the topics most frequently cited was a patient's interaction with their physician's staff, ac- cording to the analysis. "e results of this analysis reflect that patients don't just want to see a doctor; they want to be seen," said Brad Bowman, MD, CMO of Healthgrades. "Knowing how these factors influence the patient experience gives providers the opportunity to better serve these personal aspects of care, resulting in a healthier overall population." n Study: Higher patient loads linked to worse patient- reported physician ratings By Megan Knowles A s online reviews become an increasingly popular tool for patients to evaluate and choose physicians, practices with higher patient volumes may be linked to lower physician ratings, according to a research letter published in JAMA Surgery. The researchers analyzed 2014 Medicare billing data from 665 California urologists to compare against patients' online reviews, which researchers collected from four websites — RateMDs, Health- grades, Vitals and Yelp. Urologists who saw a higher number of patients at their practices frequently experienced increased wait times and shorter patient-physician interac- tions, as noted in patients' reviews. Additionally, physicians who billed for a greater number of services were more likely to have lower ratings on website reviews. Urologists at academic institutions were more likely to receive higher ratings than private practice urologists. However, the researchers noted no significant differences when comparing reviews for female and male physicians. n 30% of patients leave medical appointments over long wait times By Megan Knowles T hirty percent of patients said they have walked out of a medical appointment due to long wait times, and people who have poor healthcare access were more likely to leave an appointment for this reason, according to Vitals' annual Physician Wait Time Report. To compile the annual Physician Wait Time Report, now in its ninth year, Vitals gathered data from patient-reported wait times from 2008 through the end of 2017. Vitals also surveyed over 675 online respondents in a March 2018 poll. Here are four report findings. 1. The Vitals Index found 84 percent of people believe wait time is either "somewhat important" or "very important" to their over- all experience at a physician's office. 2. The report revealed 1 in 5 patients said they have changed physicians because of long wait times. 3. Only 20 percent of people who said they have excellent ac- cess to top-quality physicians said they left an appointment due to long wait times. 4. However, 53 percent of people who said they had poor healthcare access have walked out of a physician's office due to long waits. n

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