Physician Ratings: One Orthopedic Doctor’s Experience

At our recent medical marketing seminar for orthopedic doctors in New York we created a bit of a controversy. While we always recommend our clients embrace patient reviews as a standard process in their patient’s experience during visits, one orthopedic doctor disagreed.

Are physician ratings sites fair?

At our recent medical marketing seminar for orthopedic doctors in New York we created a bit of a controversy. While we always recommend our clients embrace patient reviews as a standard process in their patient’s experience during visits, one orthopedic doctor disagreed.

Are physician ratings sites fair?

1. Doctors are assigned ratings based on one or two reviews not indicative at all about the thousands of patients they see every year
2. Doctors are invited to recommend ratings sites to their patients only to build on a history that is mostly negative, unverified, and sometimes even untrue.
3. If you pay them, they will wipe your slate clean.
4. Many sites are outdated and your competitors are taking your patients
5. Your medical schools, fellowships, and residency hospitals are give ratings too. Are they indicative of who you are as a person and what you’ve accomplished since? What does a one of five stars about your medical school mean for a patient who’s looking for verification if you’re “good enough” to see them?
6. Some sites advertise for your name while promoting other doctors on the same page
7. Some even advertise for your practice, rank higher than your own website, and then force you to pay for patient leads.
8. They hold all the negotiating power, because they own your name.

These companies are spending millions of dollars in advertising on TV, Radio, Internet, and print on why people should go to them first when looking for doctors. They are literally taking advantage of doctors’ inability to recognize how important a physician’s digital footprint really is. 

We published 12 case studies and compared them to data from marketing campaigns in 2011. Literally in less than one year the entire process of how patients look for doctors has been changed by the impact of advertisements from physician ratings sites. 

Where your patients are going to check up on you should be your #1 Priority. It’s not always fair, but exploring all of your options on what you should recommend to your patients is very important. This is how partnerships are formed. It’s how you get some of that negotiating power back.