Face time with physicians: How do patients assess providers in video-visits?

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic has triggered a massive acceleration in the use of virtual and video-visits. As more patients and providers engage in video-visits over varied digital platforms, it is important to understand how patients assess their providers and the video-visit experiences. We also need to examine the relative importance of the factors that patients use in their assessment of video-visits in order to improve the overall healthcare experience and delivery.

Methods: A data set of 5149 reviews of patients completing a video-visit was assembled through web scraping. Sentiment analysis was performed on the reviews and topic modeling was used to extract latent topics embedded in the reviews and their relative importance.

Results: Most patient reviews (89.53%) reported a positive sentiment towards their providers in video-visits. Seven distinct topics underlying the reviews were identified: bedside manners, professional expertise, virtual experience, appointment scheduling and follow-up process, wait times, costs, and communication. Communication, bedside manners and professional expertise were the top factors patients alluded to in the positive reviews. Appointment-scheduling and follow-ups, wait-times, costs, virtual experience and professional expertise were important factors in the negative reviews.

Discussion: To improve the overall experience of patients in video-visits, providers need to engage in clear communication, grow excellent bedside and manners, promptly attend the video-visit with minimal delays and follow-up with patients after the visit.