That’s how we improve.”
– Bill Gates
“I would have told them exactly how I felt…but they never asked.”
– Anonymous patient
One corollary of the “Information Everywhere” environment in which we now live is customers’ desire to review quality ratings of the healthcare service providers they consider for treatment. Their online search behavior affirms this. But our GAP survey revealed a very interesting insight: comments about healthcare service providers posted on social media are reviewed by far fewer adults than comments posted about hospitality service providers. Given that decisions about healthcare are far more consequential than decisions about where to stay or dine, one wonders why. The results of our GAP survey reveal the reason: most healthcare service providers just don’t ask for feedback on the services they provide…hence this information is not readily available!
Less than half of adults report hospitals and walk-in clinics request feedback on their experiences, significantly lower than the percentage who receive such requests from hotels and resorts. Physicians’ offices are more likely than other healthcare service providers to solicit feedback, presumably because of the closer relationship personal physicians form with their patients over time. Restaurants are least likely to request feedback from patrons because of the more transient nature of their clientele, although popular restaurant reservation services such as OpenTable and The Fork now request feedback from all guests who use these booking services as a matter of routine.
Why more healthcare service providers don’t routinely solicit feedback on the experiences of their patients is a mystery. In this chapter we explore why and offer suggestions on how healthcare service provides should access this information.
