Data mining of customer reviews to analyse the consumer experience in hospitals

Abstract

Abstract Background Consumer experience is crucial in the healthcare industry as customers need intensive care and attention. The digital review texts posted by the patients and their relatives can be a great tool to understand how the customers in the healthcare industry opine about different aspects of the services, facilities, and treatment provided in the hospitals. This paper attempts to analyze online customer reviews through data mining for understanding the experience of customers regarding different aspects of hospitals. The paper uses different text mining tools with part of speech-based tagging for aspect-based opinion mining. The analysis of the different aspects extracted from the review data shows that customers write reviews about the aspects of the hospitals such as doctors, staff, facilities, treatment, care, overall management etc. The perception towards the staff, facilities, services, and treatment also highly contributes to the positive review ratings and hence positive consumer experience. The research work provides insights to stakeholders such as healthcare professionals and hospital administration. The digital space and footprint of the hospitals should also be positive as it is viewed by prospective customers. Government should also have stringent policies for continuously low-rated hospitals.