Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Formative Research
Date Submitted: Mar 3, 2021
Date Accepted: Dec 13, 2021
Patient Experience and Satisfaction in Online Reviews of Obstetric Care: Observational Study
ABSTRACT
Background:
The quality of care in labor and delivery is traditionally measured through the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) but less is known about the experiences of care reported by patients and caregivers on online sites which are more easily accessed by the public.
Objective:
The aim of this study was to generate insight into the labor and delivery experience using hospital reviews on Yelp.
Methods:
We identified all Yelp reviews of US hospitals posted online from May 2005 to March 2017. We used a machine learning tool, Latent Dirichlet Allocation, to identify 100 topics or themes within these reviews and used Person’s r to identify statistically significant correlations between topics and high “5-star” and low “1-star” ratings.
Results:
A total of 1,569 hospitals listed in the American Hospital Association directory had at least one Yelp posting, contributing a total of 41,095 Yelp reviews. Among those hospitals, 919 (59%) had at least one Yelp rating for labor and delivery services (median of 9 reviews) contributing a total of 6,523 labor and delivery reviews. Reviews concentrated among 5-star (2,643, 41%) and 1-star reviews (1,934, 30%). Themes strongly associated with favorable ratings include: top notch care (r = 0.45, p<0.001), describing staff as comforting (r = 0.52, p<0.001), the delivery experience (r = 0.46, p<0.001), modern and clean facilities (r = 0.44, p<0.001), and hospital food (r = 0.38, p<0.001). Themes strongly correlated with 1-star labor and delivery reviews included complaints to management (r = 0.30, p<0.001), a lack of agency amongst patients (r = 0.47, p<0.001), and issues with discharging from the hospital (r = 0.32, p<0.001).
Conclusions:
Online review content about labor and delivery can provide meaningful information about patient satisfaction and experiences. Narratives from these reviews can direct efforts to improve the experience of obstetrical care that are not otherwise captured in traditional surveys.
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