Can easy phrases like “and” or “then” in on-line critiques assist well being care suppliers find out about their sufferers’ experiences?
New analysis reveals they’ll, with a brand new evaluation exhibiting that the most typical theme in unfavourable critiques of well being care amenities concerned communication and administrative points, whereas complimentary critiques centered on reassuring and gratifying interactions with clinicians and employees. This was uncovered by an evaluation of the particular phrases and phrases utilized in on-line critiques, which was then used to seek out correlations with constructive or unfavourable critiques.
The work was executed by a examine crew on the Perelman Faculty of Medication on the College of Pennsylvania who printed their findings in JAMA Community Open.
As a result of so many are guided of their decisions by on-line critiques of many alternative industries and merchandise, the researchers view on-line critiques as an untapped useful resource for locating true affected person sentiments.
“The present methods wherein well being care amenities measure the affected person expertise after which take motion usually takes lots of time, making a system that lags between the precise encounter and enhancements,” mentioned senior writer Anish Agarwal, MD, MPH, deputy director of the Heart for Insights to Outcomes and an assistant professor of Emergency Medication. “If the real-time information from on-line critiques might be included into instruments which might be simply considered by well being methods and their suppliers, they may make nearly speedy adjustments for extra constructive experiences.”
The researchers analyzed information from greater than one million Yelp critiques spanning seven years (2017 by way of 2023) of virtually 139,000 well being care amenities throughout the US. Utilizing an information evaluation instrument known as the Differential Language Evaluation ToolKit (DLATK), they particularly checked out 1- and 2-star (unfavourable) critiques, in addition to 4- and 5-star (constructive) critiques.
The unfavourable
Roughly 46% of all critiques have been 1- or 2-stars. The phrase “not” someplace within the textual content correlated most strongly to the unfavourable critiques. Cost points and poor therapy have been most strongly tied to unfavourable critiques, nearly equally.
Communication was a quite common theme among the many phrases the researchers decided to be correlated to unfavourable critiques. “Advised,” “Stated,” “Name,” and “Requested” have been among the many high phrases related to dangerous critiques. Earlier work by Agarwal and his colleagues had additionally highlighted “instructed” as the most typical time period in unfavourable on-line hospital critiques.
Cellphone conversations (and the maintain occasions related to them) have been frequent unfavourable themes, together with emotions of unfair fee experiences and notion of poor medical therapy, though the latter was not as frequent because the researchers believed it could be, Agarwal mentioned.
The constructive
Greater than 50% of the analyzed critiques have been 4- or 5-stars, with “and” as the highest time period related to these critiques by an excellent margin, adopted by “nice.”
Optimistic interactions with clinicians and employees emphasizing kindness was a high theme within the constructive critiques. “Pleasant,” “useful,” and “form,” have been all high phrases. Based on the evaluation, the flexibility of employees to alleviate sufferers’ nervousness was additionally a high theme uncovered, leading to “nervous” and “scared” being phrases that have been really related to constructive critiques.
Pushing towards the constructive
Well being care critiques took a important dip amid the COVID pandemic, and the emotions have but to rebound. Nevertheless, the analysis crew believes that their work factors to actual alternatives to enhance care.
“We imagine these are systemic points moderately than remoted complaints,” mentioned first writer Neil Sehgal, ME, an affiliate fellow within the Penn Leonard Davis Institute for Well being Economics. “We’re excited about understanding how particular facility traits, reminiscent of dimension, possession, or affected person quantity, would possibly form affected person sentiment and communication challenges.”
Agarwal is especially excited about understanding extra concerning the well being care amenities who persistently rating nicely.
“I might like to see the place and which hospitals persistently knock this out of the park and, regardless of the final 5 to 10 years, proceed to offer high-quality and extremely well-regarded care,” Agarwal mentioned. “If we spend extra time studying from these doing it nicely, we will all transfer ahead.”
Extra data:
Neil Okay.R. Sehgal et al, On-line Critiques of Well being Care Amenities, JAMA Community Open (2025). DOI: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2025.24505
Quotation:
‘And’ vs. ‘Then’: What phrases in on-line critiques inform us about hospital visits (2025, August 1)
retrieved 2 August 2025
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