Exploring effective patient feedback methods for eHealth in general practice

The use of patient feedback is essential for identifying areas for improvement and tailoring care to the needs of patients, particularly in the context of eHealth, which has increased in adoption due to the pandemic. However, challenges persist in collecting feedback from vulnerable groups, those with severe conditions, or language barriers. Furthermore, concerns exist about the credibility and validity of the feedback received. This study aims to explore various possible forms that general practitioners (GPs) could use to collect patient feedback on eHealth applications in their daily practice.

A Participatory Research (PR) was conducted involving an advisory group, patients, GPs and medical receptionists. The advisory group consisting of GPs, a board member, patient representatives and digital care manager affiliated with the primary care organisation 'Regionale Organisatie Huisartsen Amsterdam' (ROHA). The group provided input throughout the research process from the setup, data collection and interpretation to the finalization phase. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 13 patients, 8 GPs and 2 medical receptionists. Participants were recruited through purposive sampling. Interviews were coded using Thematic Analysis.

Four themes were considered important. First, timing of feedback. Gathering instant feedback immediately after digital interactions was considered important. Secondly, the feedback procedure, whereby feedback should be given through the same communication channel as was used for the doctor-patient contact was valued. Also, participants preferred short and specific surveys, in which they can remain anonymous. Thirdly, for the feedback content some key feedback topics included general experiences, quality of care and technical aspects. The last theme was advertisement. Overall, patients do not want to burden their GP and thus tend to only give feedback if initiated by their GP. GPs themselves pointed out to have limited time for collecting feedback from patients due to their workload.

GPs can optimize the feedback collection process by selecting targeted questions and integrating them into existing eHealth applications, thereby investing minimal time from GPs and patients. It is recommended to include automatic selected questions at the end of e-consultations. This integrated approach allows efficient feedback collection without burdening GPs.