An Increase of 6.7% in positive ratings in 2020 indicates a growth in the overall patient satisfaction level.

Key Takeaways

• 91.3 % of patients gave positive ratings about their visit to urgent care centers in 2020, whereas it was 84.7 % in 2019.
• 3.5 % rated their experience neutral, a decrease of 1.8 % compared to the previous report of 2019.
• Overall, the Net Promoter Score (a measure of patient’s loyalty) for urgent care centers in 2020 was 77.3 /100 (Total Sample = 10393 ), whereas it was 78.1 /100 in 2019.
• 83.8 % of the patients are Promoters (patients who are likely to refer a specific practice/doctor to a friend or family member), down by 0.2% compared to 2019.
• 9.8 % of the patients are Passives (patients who are likely not to take any action in referring to a specific practice/doctor), whereas it was 10.1% in 2019.
• 6.4% of the patients are Detractors (patients who are likely to deter people from choosing a specific practice/doctor), whereas it was 5.9 % in 2019.
• Efficiency, Helpful, and Caring, were the dominant words used by patients who rated their experience as positive.

Welcome to the GMR Web Team Urgent Care Patient Satisfaction Survey (2020)

Since the inception of our first patient satisfaction survey report (January-December 2017), we have seen some changes in the ways patients review their healthcare visit experience, but mostly in how we analyze it. This survey follows on from our first report, comparing the useful insights on reviews and patient satisfaction. The data was taken from our proprietary software RepuGen.

This survey measures the LOYALTY of patients for their urgent care and helps in understanding the needs of the patients for developing effective patient-related programs to address their pain points. This will help in developing a stronger bond between the patients and the urgent care facility, and the patients will become the advocate of the urgent care center, resulting in more referrals and fueling growth.

How Do Patients Rate Their Visit to the Urgent Care Center Office Based on Their RepuScore*?

*RepuScore is the score given by patients on a scale of 0 to 10 when asked their likelihood of recommending the urgent care center based on their experience of the last visit. 0 means will not recommend, and 10 means will recommend.

Key Findings

• The Average RepuScore in 2020 has remained at a constant 9.2 since 2018.

Analysis

• Since the urgent care centers in this analysis were using GMR Web Team tools to tackle their patients’ concerns, it is very likely that the possibility of recommending the urgent care centers remained constant from 2018 to 2020.
• This finding substantiates our view that the key to getting more recommendations from patients is focusing more on maintaining a positive and satisfying patient experience at urgent care centers.

All Ratings (Rating Breakdown)

Key Findings

• Patients rating their experience positive increased from 84.7% in 2019 to 91.3% in 2020.
• After a significant increase in 2019, patients rating their experience neutral and negative decreased in 2020 compared to 2019.

Analysis

• A substantial increase in positive ratings in 2020 after the decrease in 2019 indicates that efforts taken by urgent care centers to ensure a positive and fruitful patient experience are paying off. However, to achieve a higher number of positive ratings similar to 2018 and 2017, urgent care centers need to continuously monitor their patients’ concerns and address them immediately to improve the overall patient experience.
• A decrease in neutral and negative ratings in 2020 indicates a lesser percentage of patients were dissatisfied with the services received. This decrease may be linked to the proactiveness of the urgent care service providers in providing a more patient enriching experience in the face of COVID-19.
• To identify their individual areas which need improvement to ensure a better experience for patients visiting their clinic, urgent care centers need to compare their individual scores with the overall numbers.

Net Promoter Score Breakdown

**The Net Promoter Score is an index ranging from -100 to 100 that measures the willingness of customers to recommend a company's products or services to others. It is used as a proxy for gauging the customer's overall satisfaction with a company's product or service and the customer's loyalty to the brand.

Key Findings

• The Net Promoter Score experienced a slight drop of 0.8% in 2020 when compared to 2019.
• The percentage of patients who could become promoters also reduced slightly by 0.2% in 2020 as compared to 2019.
• The number of detractors rebounded to the 2018 figures, with 6.4% of patients not likely to recommend their urgent care center in 2020 compared to 5.9% in 2019 and 6.4% in 2018.

Analysis

• The slight decrease in Net Promoter Score suggests a minor reduction in patients’ loyalty to their urgent care center, along with how crucial patient referrals are to the clinic’s business and image.
• The decrease in the promoters coupled with an increase in detractors doesn’t present a desirable picture. More and more patients are driving prospective clients away from their urgent care providers- which is a cause of concern.
• To resolve this, urgent care centers need to look at their individual scores and compare them with the average number to identify areas where they are performing well better and areas where they need to improve. They also need to actively address patient concerns and resolve them quickly to prevent an increase in detractors.

Patient Sentiment Analysis *** after their visit:

*** Patients are asked to explain their reason for rating their visit the way that they did. GMR Web Team analyzes sentiments and their intensity based on the comments, using an artificial intelligence tool. This gives a better perspective on whether a patient has positive or a negative sentiment/ opinion towards their providers, as a rating of 10 could still be a so-so experience from a patient.

Patient Sentiment Trends

Key Findings:

• Positive sentiment saw a marked increase of 3.7% in 2020 as compared to 2019.
• There was an increase of 2.4% in neutral sentiment in 2019 as compared to the last year.
• Negative sentiment decreased significantly by 6.2% in 2020 as compared to 2019.

Analysis:

• General Inference:
• • From the patient’s POV: There is a probability that the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in the patients’ being more responsive and grateful for the urgent care services. This sense of gratitude might be triggering the increase in positive sentiment and the decline in negative ones. The public has also become increasingly health-conscious and is therefore receptive to any disease indicators for themselves and their loved ones, prompting them to seek treatment options earlier than usual. This ensures faster and better resolution to any illnesses and injuries detected.
  • From urgent care service providers’ POV: Healthcare providers, in turn, are providing more prompt and effective services and ensuring safer premises to ensure patient and employee safety in response to the challenges presented by COVID.
• A major increase in positive patient sentiment indicates higher levels of satisfaction among urgent care center patients.
• Urgent care centers need to continuously enhance their efforts to ensure satisfying and fruitful patient visits to increase the positive sentiments of their patients. Additionally, they also need to identify patients who have displayed neutral and negative responses, connect with them individually and address their concerns as soon as possible.
• These results vary significantly from the RepuScore because these scores are based on artificial intelligence to scan ACTUAL patient comments instead of their 0-10 ratings.
• Ratings are not always the most efficient method to measure a comment because the most common ratings are a 10 or 0. However, most people giving such drastic scores are not always equivalently happy or dissatisfied.
• The context of the patients’ comments needs to be measured. This is expertly done by this AI sentiment analysis tool with an error margin of about 3%.
• This also illustrates the online review scores may not always accurately portray reputation due to the skewed nature of the ratings.
• Note that a negative sentiment is not equivalent to an unsatisfied patient. While assessing the overall comment, an AI sentiment analysis tool could comprehend a positive rating as negative for a remark like ‘extended wait times.'

Entities and Attributes That Highlight Patients’ Sentiments

**** Our AI tool has analyzed the positive and negative entities based on the frequency of the words mentioned below (attributes) used in the comments made by patients.

Key Findings:

• From a sample size of 4624 comments, 94.3% responded with positive sentiments, while 5.7% displayed a negative response.
• The highest-ranked positive sentiments expressed by patients were Excellence (15.5%), Pleasant (13%), and Friendly (7.1%).

Patient Positive Sentiments

Unpleasant (12.1%), Rude (6%), and Inefficient (1.4%) were reported among the highest-ranked negative sentiments expressed by patients.

Patient Negative Sentiments

Analysis:

• Besides the highest-ranked positive sentiments, patients also reported positive attributes like professional, helpful, and professionalism for their urgent care providers. Urgent Care providers should note their positive features and develop their practice based on these attributes to ensure better patient satisfaction.
• Other than the top three negative attributes, patients also reported negative sentiments, including late, unclean, and incompetence. These negative sentiments pinpoint the areas that need immediate redressal and improvement by urgent care clinics to retain their patients and sustain better satisfaction levels.
• Additionally, since the pandemic hasn’t subsided yet, urgent care clinics should continue to adhere to all the safety protocols to ensure patient and staff safety, retain their patient base, and minimize any negative rankings associated with it.
• Note that a negative sentiment does not always indicate an unsatisfied patient. If the complete text of a comment is considered, an AI sentiment analysis tool might regard a positive ranking as negative or unsatisfactory for something as simple as 'the wait time was too long.'

About the GMR Web Team Urgent Care Patient Satisfaction Survey

• An online survey was conducted from January 2020 through December 2020 among 10393 patients belonging to urgent care centers that are using GMR Web Team service. We then compared the findings with 2019 and 2018. We included the data of 2017 to show the actual trends over the years.
• The patients were asked to select their likelihood of recommending the urgent care center based on their latest experience on a scale of 0 to 10.
• Patients were asked to explain the reason behind their rating.
• All the information (rating score and comments) was detached from patient and doctor identification to make the report HIPAA* compliant. GMR Web Team cannot backtrack comments or sentiments to link Net Promoter Score or sentiments to patients or urgent care centers that were used for this report.

*HIPAA - The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, a US law designed to provide privacy standards to protect patients' medical records and other health information provided to health plans, doctors, hospitals, and other health care providers.

• Patients were then classified into 3 categories – Promoters, Passives, and Detractors.
• Promoters: Patients giving a rating of either 9 or 10 to their urgent care center were classified as Promoters. They are loyal enthusiasts who will keep referring the urgent care centers to other patients.
• Passives: Patients giving a rating of 7 or 8 to their urgent care center were classified as Passive. They are satisfied but NOT enthusiastic patients who are vulnerable to competitive offerings.
• Detractors - Patients giving a rating of 0 to 6 to their urgent care center were classified as Detractors. They are unhappy patients who can damage the reputation of their urgent care center and impede growth through negative word of mouth.
• All comments were grouped by positive, negative, and neutral ratings.
• An established 3rd party artificial intelligence tool RepuGen, was used to gauge patient sentiment by group (positive, negative, neutral) and also to gauge the intensity of the sentiment based on their comments about their experience.
• GMR Web Team proprietary software RepuGen was used to analyze word density of comments by group for all patients to identify words used by patients to describe their experience.

Why Is the Urgent Care Patient Satisfaction Benchmark Report So Important?

Online reviews and recommendations from existing patients are the best source of new patients for urgent care centers.

• In-depth analyses of patient experience help urgent care centers identify their strengths and weaknesses, giving them the knowledge to make positive organizational changes.
• Understanding the patient sentiment and its intensity provides insight into the patients’ mindsets after they leave the office. Urgent care centers can use the information to improve satisfaction and brand their practice consistent with the positive sentiments generated by their service.
• The density of words extracted from patients’ comments of different groups will help communicate the desired branding effort better.

Suggested Next Steps:

Urgent care centers should gather patient experience information to better understand the patient sentiment and ultimately improve patient care and satisfaction.

Patient satisfaction data can also be used to attract more patients by:

• Improving online reputation by requesting happy patients to share their information on the internet. Over 70% of prospective patients consider online reviews as the first step to choose their doctors.
• Developing an automated referral program that requests happy patients to recommend their urgent care center to others.

Contact us at 800-523-7187 or fill out our form to learn how you can start building your patient satisfaction data and how to use it to generate more patients.