The Utility of Healthcare Providers’ Online Biographies for First-Time Patients: A Year-Long Study within a Clinical Setting

ABSTRACT

Despite recommendations to provide patient-centered care (i.e., empowering patients to take a greater role in their care), healthcare systems still lag behind in helping patients make arguably one of their most important decisions – their initial selection of a primary care provider. While prior highly-controlled, theoretically-guided, experimental research has tested how various presentations of provider information may impact patients’ decision-making processes, no studies to date have taken the next step to actually roll out improvements to providers’ online information in a real-world healthcare organization and assess their effects. Over the course of a year, the current study made improvements to the website of a health clinic (i.e., adding biographies of primary care providers, & including short video introductions). Post-consultation questionnaires completed by first-time patients revealed patients who naturally viewed online biographies prior to setting appointments indicated less uncertainty – which was mediated through increases in perceived similarity – and were more likely to purposely select their providers. Patients who purposely selected their providers also reported greater patient satisfaction, and were more likely to choose providers with whom they perceived greater similarity. Similarity and patient satisfaction were also positively related. Overall, findings indicate online provider biographies can help patients become more purposive participants in their care, which can lead to greater patient satisfaction.

Notes

1. The providers were all allowed final editorial control over the soundbites that were utilized for presentation in these short videos.

2. The Spearman-Brown coefficient is provided as a measure of reliability for this two-item measure, as recommended by Eisinga, Te Grotenhuis, and Pelzer (2013).

3. About 15% of new patients surveyed after biographies were introduced indicated viewing them. An independent samples t-test was also conducted with biography viewing as the independent variable, and uncertainty as the dependent variable. The result showed a significant difference t (1962) = 3.49, p < .001, Cohen’s d = .23. Patients who viewed online biographies (n = 297; M = 3.18, SD = 1.56) reported less uncertainty than patients who did not (n = 1,667; M = 3.54, SD = 1.62).

4. About 7% of new patients surveyed after video biographies were introduced indicated viewing them. Hypothesis 2 is also tested by excluding patients who viewed videos prior to their consultations, but who ultimately visited providers who did not have videos present on the website (n = 3). The mean difference was greater, and again in the right direction – viewed videos (n = 66; M = 2.96, SD = 1.39), viewed text (n = 130; M = 3.19, SD = 1.64) – but was also non-significant t (194) = 0.98, p= .33.

5. Due to unequal variances (Levene’s test, F= 9.27, p =.002), a corrected t-statistic not assuming homogeneity of variances is reported with degrees of freedom adjusted from 2,324 to 482.

Additional information

Funding

This work was partially supported by the Saremi Health & Wellness Foundation.