Social support and responsiveness in online patient communities: impact on service quality perceptions

BackgroundHospitals frequently evaluate their service quality based on the care and services provided to patients by their clinical and non-clinical staff.(1,2) However, such evaluations do not take into consideration the many interactions that patients have in online patient communities with the health-care organization (HCO) as well as with peer patients. Patients' interactions in these online communities could impact their perceptions regarding the HCO's service quality. PurposesThe objective of this pilot study was to evaluate the impact of social support and responsiveness that patients experience in an HCO's online community on patients' perceptions regarding the HCO's service quality. MethodThe study data are collected from CHESS, a health-care programme (Comprehensive Health Enhancement Support System) run by the Centre for Health Enhancement System Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. FindingsFindings show that the social support and the responsiveness received from peer patients in the online patient communities will impact patients' perceptions regarding the service quality of the HCO even when the organizational members themselves do not participate in the online discussions. Practice implicationsThe results indicate that interactions in such HCO-provided online patient communities should not be ignored as they could translate into patients' perceptions regarding HCOs' service quality. Ways to improve responsiveness and social support in an HCO's online patient community are discussed.