Google star ratings of Canadian hospitals: a nationwide cross-sectional analysis.
Healthcare quality improvement
Management
Patient satisfaction
Journal
BMJ open quality
ISSN: 2399-6641
Titre abrégé: BMJ Open Qual
Pays: England
ID NLM: 101710381
Informations de publication
Date de publication:
22 Jul 2024
22 Jul 2024
Historique:
received:
11
12
2023
accepted:
29
06
2024
medline:
23
7
2024
pubmed:
23
7
2024
entrez:
22
7
2024
Statut:
epublish
Résumé
Data on patients' self-reported hospital experience can help guide quality improvement. Traditional patient survey programmes are resource intensive, and results are not always publicly accessible. Unsolicited online hospital reviews are an alternative data source; however, the nature of online reviews for Canadian hospitals is unknown. We conducted a nationwide cross-sectional study of Canadian acute care hospitals with more than 10 Google Reviews during the 2018-2019 fiscal year. We characterised the volume and distribution of Google Reviews of Canadian hospitals, and assessed their correlation with hospital characteristics (teaching status, size, occupancy rate, length of stay, resource utilisation) and Canadian Patient Experience Survey on Inpatient Care (CPES-IC) scores. 167 out of 523 (31.9%) acute care hospitals in Canada met the inclusion criteria. Among included hospitals, there was a total of 10 395 Google Reviews and a median of 35 reviews per hospital. The mean Google Star Rating for included hospitals was 2.85 out of 5, with a range of 1.36-4.57. Teaching hospitals had significantly higher mean Google Star Ratings compared with non-teaching hospitals (3.16 vs 2.81, p <0.01). There was a weak, positive correlation between hospitals' Google Star Ratings and CPES-IC 'Overall Hospital Experience' scores (p =0.04), but no significant correlation between Google Star Ratings and other hospital characteristics or subcategories of CPES-IC scores. There is significant interhospital variation in patients' self-reported care experiences at Canadian acute care hospitals. Online reviews can serve as a readily accessible source of real-time data for hospitals to monitor and improve the patient experience.
Sections du résumé
BACKGROUND
BACKGROUND
Data on patients' self-reported hospital experience can help guide quality improvement. Traditional patient survey programmes are resource intensive, and results are not always publicly accessible. Unsolicited online hospital reviews are an alternative data source; however, the nature of online reviews for Canadian hospitals is unknown.
METHODS
METHODS
We conducted a nationwide cross-sectional study of Canadian acute care hospitals with more than 10 Google Reviews during the 2018-2019 fiscal year. We characterised the volume and distribution of Google Reviews of Canadian hospitals, and assessed their correlation with hospital characteristics (teaching status, size, occupancy rate, length of stay, resource utilisation) and Canadian Patient Experience Survey on Inpatient Care (CPES-IC) scores.
RESULTS
RESULTS
167 out of 523 (31.9%) acute care hospitals in Canada met the inclusion criteria. Among included hospitals, there was a total of 10 395 Google Reviews and a median of 35 reviews per hospital. The mean Google Star Rating for included hospitals was 2.85 out of 5, with a range of 1.36-4.57. Teaching hospitals had significantly higher mean Google Star Ratings compared with non-teaching hospitals (3.16 vs 2.81, p <0.01). There was a weak, positive correlation between hospitals' Google Star Ratings and CPES-IC 'Overall Hospital Experience' scores (p =0.04), but no significant correlation between Google Star Ratings and other hospital characteristics or subcategories of CPES-IC scores.
INTERPRETATION
CONCLUSIONS
There is significant interhospital variation in patients' self-reported care experiences at Canadian acute care hospitals. Online reviews can serve as a readily accessible source of real-time data for hospitals to monitor and improve the patient experience.
Identifiants
pubmed: 39038856
pii: bmjoq-2023-002713
doi: 10.1136/bmjoq-2023-002713
pii:
doi:
Types de publication
Journal Article
Langues
eng
Sous-ensembles de citation
IM
Informations de copyright
© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2024. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.
Déclaration de conflit d'intérêts
Competing interests: None declared.