Operational efficiency and patient‐centered health care: A view from online physician reviews

Abstract Online reviews are playing an increasingly important role in how patients select and evaluate health‐care providers. Physician rating websites not only act as open platforms for patients to share their experiences, but can also offer valuable feedback for physicians to improve the quality of care. In this study, we analyze over one million physician reviews across 17 medical specialties and investigate the relationship between operational efficiency and patient satisfaction. We combine econometrics models with text analytics techniques to quantify the effect using both patients' ratings of physicians and their qualitative review narratives. The results provide strong empirical evidence that operational inefficiency negatively influences patient satisfaction. Specifically, a waiting time longer than 17 min will, on average, reduce the odds of getting a high rating status by 14%. Though many health care ratings examined in this study do not mitigate the negative effects brought on by long waiting time, patient narratives reflecting the importance of technical and interpersonal qualities to patients suggest a more complex set of relationships between waiting time and patient satisfaction. Our study showcases the usefulness of online physician reviews and reveals unique insights for improving the delivery of patient‐centered health care.