Speaking of Urgent Care Centers: Language Matters

With the adoption of the Affordable Care Act, it is necessary for health care facilities to focus on patient perceptions and care experience (Japsen, 2013). The urgent care industry has grown exponentially as demand for more accessible patient services has increased. There is little research on how patients perceive their care experiences and what influences their satisfaction in the urgent care setting. The present study proposes a series of research questions exploring the relationship between language and ratings of urgent care facilities. This study aimed to: (1) identify which words were tied to patient experience, (2) identify the language used by satisfied and dissatisfied patients, (3) describe language used in high and low ratings of urgent care centers, and (4) examine a model of the relationships between words. Preliminary results support a proposed model of patient satisfaction that includes care delivery, staff behavior, and facility characteristics. ┬a