JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

The assessment of medical service quality is difficult, due to the information asymmetry between patients and doctors. With the development of online healthcare platforms, patients nowadays have more channels to reach medical service and assess others reviews as a quality indicator. However, what aspects in online reviews we should care that may affect the demand of doctors remain largely unexplored.

Objective:

The goal of this study is to establish a more comprehensive medical service quality evaluation system that reflect patients' actual experience and satisfaction from a broader perspective and provide a more scientific basis for improving the quality of medical services.

Methods:

We adopt a text mining approach, conducting topic analysis, theory-driven topic selection, and aggregation to develop a five-dimensional healthcare service quality framework based on online reviews. This framework encompasses doctors' expertise, communication attitude, service delivery process, service outcomes, and empathy. We also conduct empirical analysis to assess if the patients’ positive or negative assessment (i.e., sentiments) on the dimensions would matter to the future demand. The heterogeneity caused by disease type and doctors rank are explored as well.

Results:

Using data from a large online healthcare platform in China, we find that the polarity of patient opinions on the five dimensions significantly affect the patient demand. We also show patients suffering from chronic diseases are more sensitive to these dimensions comparing with patients suffering from non-chronic diseases. Doctors’ rank also exhibit significant moderating role among 5 dimensions.

Conclusions:

This study offers a foundational exploration of how patients prioritize online reviews when evaluating healthcare services, with significant implications for healthcare management. Our findings provide both clinicians and patients with practical insights for delivering high-quality healthcare services. The results can guide doctors and healthcare managers in formulating strategies to enhance service quality, minimize patient dissatisfaction, and strengthen patient-provider relationships.