Do patients “like” good care? Measuring hospital quality via Facebook
Abstract
With the growth of Facebook, public health researchers are exploring the platform's uses in health care. However, little research has examined the relationship between Facebook and traditional hospital quality measures. The authors conducted an exploratory quantitative analysis of hospitals' Facebook pages to assess whether Facebook "Likes" were associated with hospital quality and patient satisfaction. The 30-day mortality rates and patient recommendation rates were used to quantify hospital quality and patient satisfaction; these variables were correlated with Facebook data for 40 hospitals near New York, NY. The results showed that Facebook "Likes" have a strong negative association with 30-day mortality rates and are positively associated with patient recommendation. These exploratory findings suggest that the number of Facebook "Likes" for a hospital may serve as an indicator of hospital quality and patient satisfaction. These findings have implications for researchers and hospitals looking for a quick and widely available measure of these traditional indicators.
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For a group of New York hospitals, there was a one percentage point decrease in 30-day mortality rate for every 93 Facebook Likes on the hospitals' pages.
“for a group of New York hospitals, there was a one percentage point decrease in 30-day mortality rate for every 93 “Likes” on the hospitals' Facebook pages.”
From Professionalism in a Digital Age: Opportunities and Considerations for Using Social Media in Health Care (2015) · cites this paper as [12]
Facebook Likes were more closely related to mortality than patient satisfaction surveys.
“Facebook “Likes” were more closely related to mortality than patient satisfaction surveys.12”
From Professionalism in a Digital Age: Opportunities and Considerations for Using Social Media in Health Care (2015) · cites this paper as [12]
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- Authors
- Timian, A., Rupcic, S., Kachnowski, S., & Luisi, P.
- Affiliations
- Healthcare Innovation and Technology Lab, New York, NY
- Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IN)
- Venue
- American Journal of Medical Quality
- Published
- 2013-02
- Volume
- 28
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 374-382
- ISSN
- 1062-8606 (ISSN-L)
- 1555-824X
- OpenAlex
- W2022598238
- Cited by
- 75
- References
- 33
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 8 · 2020: 3 · 2019: 5 · 2018: 12 · 2017: 13 · 2016: 4 · 2015: 11 · 2014: 10 · 2013: 1
- FWCI
- 15.69
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- American Journal of Medical Quality (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Patient Satisfaction in Healthcare
- Social Sciences › Health › Social Media in Health Education
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › Health Information Management › Healthcare Quality and Management
- Keywords
- Facebook likes, hospital quality, patient satisfaction, 30-day mortality, patient recommendations, social media, quality indicators
- MeSH terms
- Hospitals, Humans, New York, Quality Assurance, Health Care, Quality of Health Care, Hospital Mortality, Patient Satisfaction, Quality Indicators, Health Care, Social Media
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