Associate Professor, Warwick Medical School, University of Warwick, UK.
Research Fellow, Warwick Medical School, University of Warwick, UK.
J Health Serv Res Policy. 2019 Oct;24(4):235-244. doi: 10.1177/1355819619844540. Epub 2019 Jun 2.
Online patient feedback is a growing phenomenon but little is known about health professional attitudes and behaviours in relation to it. We aimed to identify the characteristics, attitudes and self-reported behaviours and experiences of doctors and nurses towards online feedback from their patients or their carers.
We conducted a cross-sectional self-completed online questionnaire of 1001 registered doctors and 749 nurses and midwives involved in direct patient care in the United Kingdom.
Just over a quarter (27.7% or 277/1001) of doctors and 21% (157/749) of nurses were aware that patients/carers had provided online feedback about an episode of care in which they were involved, and 20.5% (205/1001) of doctors and 11.1% (83/749) of nurses had experienced online feedback about them as an individual practitioner. Feedback on reviews/ratings sites was seen as more useful than social media feedback to help improve services. Both types of feedback were more likely to be seen as useful by nurses compared with doctors and by hospital-based professionals compared with those based in community settings. Doctors were more likely than nurses to believe that online feedback is unrepresentative and generally negative in tone. The majority of respondents had never encouraged patients/carers to leave online feedback.
Despite enthusiasm from health policymakers, many health care professionals have little direct experience of online feedback, and rarely encourage it, as they view it as unrepresentative and with limited value for improving the quality of health services. The difference in opinion between doctors and nurses has the potential to disrupt any use of online patient feedback. The findings have implications for policy and practice in how online patient feedback is solicited and acted upon.
在线患者反馈是一种日益增长的现象，但对于医疗专业人员对此的态度和行为知之甚少。我们旨在确定医生和护士对患者或其照顾者在线反馈的特征、态度以及自我报告的行为和经验。
我们对英国参与直接患者护理的 1001 名注册医生和 749 名护士和助产士进行了横断面自我完成的在线问卷调查。
略多于四分之一（27.7%或 277/1001）的医生和 21%（157/749）的护士知道患者/照顾者提供了关于他们参与的护理事件的在线反馈，20.5%（205/1001）的医生和 11.1%（83/749）的护士收到了关于他们个人执业的在线反馈。与社交媒体反馈相比，他们认为对评论/评分网站的反馈更有助于改善服务。与医生相比，护士更有可能认为这两种类型的反馈都更有用，与社区环境中的专业人员相比，医院环境中的专业人员更有可能认为反馈有用。医生比护士更有可能认为在线反馈不具代表性，且总体基调负面。大多数受访者从未鼓励过患者/照顾者留下在线反馈。
尽管卫生政策制定者对此充满热情，但许多医疗保健专业人员对在线反馈的直接经验很少，并且很少鼓励这种反馈，因为他们认为反馈不具代表性，对提高卫生服务质量的价值有限。医生和护士之间的意见分歧有可能破坏任何对在线患者反馈的使用。这些发现对政策和实践具有影响，即如何征求和处理在线患者反馈。
