Synonyms
Consumer assessment; Online reviews; Public reports; Social media; Social networking
The Rise of Social Media
Increasingly, people who use healthcare see themselves as consumers in a healthcare market. As such, they expect to have access to meaningful information that enables them to make choices among healthcare providers; they also expect to have a public forum for airing grievances or sharing positive experiences. Everyday use of websites such as Amazon or Yelp has made it routine for consumers to incorporate user-generated data (that is, online ratings and reviews) into their decision-making process and to report on their purchases. Why, then, should this trend exclude healthcare services and providers? This section examines the emergence of user-generated information on social media in the healthcare context.
Social media is where communities of people gather online to generate, share, receive, and comment on information, knowledge, and opinions (Moorhead et al. 2013)....
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Miller, E.A., Hefele, J.G., Nadash, P. (2022). Emerging Use of User-Generated Ratings to Supplement Healthcare Quality Reports. In: Farazmand, A. (eds) Global Encyclopedia of Public Administration, Public Policy, and Governance. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-66252-3_3304
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