Graves RL, Goldshear, J, Perrone J, et al. (2018). Patient narratives in Yelp reviews offer insight into opioid experiences and the challenges of pain management. Pain Management. doi: 10.2217/pmt-2017-0050
Researchers extracted Yelp reviews for 1,890 U.S. hospitals (n = 42,792) from the American Hospital Association Hospital Compare dataset and created a subset containing reviews mentioning names for opioid medications (n = 836). Researchers compared ratings from the subset of opioid-related reviews to the full set of hospital reviews and thematically coded opioid-related reviews. Reviews were coded for sentiment (positive or negative) to account for reviews discussing positive and negative aspects of care experiences. Opioid-related reviews contained a higher percentage of 1 star and a lower percentage of 5 star reviews compared to the full set of reviews, though researchers did not conduct statistical analyses to determine if these differences were significant. Many themes were represented in positive and negative comments (i.e. different reviewers discussed the same theme with different sentiment). Negative pain management-related comments (n=270) most commonly pertained to inadequacy of pain control (24%) and medical provider traits or behavior (e.g., lack of responsiveness, competency; 23%). Positive pain management-related comments (n=91) most commonly pertained to reactions to opioids (34%) and provider traits or behaviors (29%). Positive and negative opioid-related comments most often pertained to side effects (57% and 41%, respectively). Pain management themes that occurred exclusively in negative comments included inadequate diagnosis or treatment of underlying conditions (i.e. treating the pain, but not the cause; 16%) and discussion or decision-making while in pain (2%). Opioid-related themes that occurred exclusively in negative comments included discharge or decision-making while under the influence of opioids (12%) and inappropriate or overmedication with opioids (28%).