Apparently so, at least according to a new study by researchers at the Healthcare Innovation and Technology Lab. The study compared Facebook “likes” for 40 New York area hospitals with Facebook pages to two Hospital Compare quality measures for the same hospitals: the 30-day mortality rate from a heart attack and the percent of patients that would definitely recommend the hospital.
Overall, they found more Facebook likes were associated with lower mortality rates and a greater willingness to recommend the hospital. The researchers conclude that Facebook can complement the more traditional data sources as another indicator on patient satisfaction and hospital quality.
An earlier post recently reported on another study correlating crowd-sourcing ratings sites such as Yelp with Hospital Compare data.
Source: Timian A and others. Do patients “like” good care? Measuring hospital quality via Facebook. American Journal of Medical Quality, Mar. 29, 2013. http://ajm.sagepub.com/content/early/2013/01/31/1062860612474839.full.pdf+html
Posted by AHA Resource Center, (312) 422-2050, rc@aha.org
Filed under: Consumer satisfaction, Health care quality, Hospitals, Posted by Diana Culbertson | Tagged: hospital Facebook likes, hospital ratings, patient satisfaction, social media |
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