Online reviews show technologists, receptionists impact patient satisfaction more than radiologists

Patient reviews are becoming increasingly popular and influential throughout the healthcare industry, but that momentum doesn’t always carry over to radiologists.

For example, in a study published back in August by the Journal of the American College of Radiology, researchers searched five popular physician-rating websites and only found reviews for 197 of 1,000 randomly selected radiologists.

At a time when popular toasters receive more than 1,000 reviews on Amazon.com, a lot of radiologists remain completely overlooked.

According to a more recent study, also published by JACR, the online reviews that do get posted are largely about the technologists or receptions and not radiologists.

Ankur M. Doshi, MD, of the NYU Langone Medical Center radiology department, and colleagues looked at reviews posted on Yelp for 126 outpatient radiology centers from throughout the U.S., analyzing what does and does not affect a patient’s overall experience.

Patient satisfaction is often measured through various surveys such as Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS), but the authors explained that social media sites such as Yelp help paint a more complete picture of the patient’s point of view.

And the biggest takeaway from the team’s Yelp data? Just 13.5 percent of online comments about imaging centers pertain to the radiologist.

“Based on more than 1,000 patient reviews of radiology imaging centers across the United States, we observed that patients’ perceptions of imaging centers are heavily shaped by service-related factors, beyond those that are most immediately influenced by the radiologist,” Doshi et al. wrote

Radiologists need to learn from these numbers, the authors explained, changing the way they work on a daily basis so that they can make more of an impact on the patient’s experience. As reimbursements get more and more tied to quality metrics such as patient satisfaction, it is in the radiologists’ best interest to build a positive relationship with as many patients as possible.

According to the authors, this also highlights the importance of maintaining a friendly, positive environment.

“The findings indicate the extent to which schedulers, receptionists, technologists, and billers all heavily influence patient satisfaction in radiology imaging encounters,” the authors wrote. “Therefore, to achieve patient-centric radiology care, radiologists must promote a service-oriented culture throughout their practice.”

The importance of these service-related factors to patients posting their reviews online can be both a gift and a curse for imaging centers. While more than 63 percent of the service-related comments were positive, that still leads more than 36 percent that were negative. Yes, good service gets noticed, but so bad service gets noticed as well.