By using this site, you agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
Accept
Health Works CollectiveHealth Works CollectiveHealth Works Collective
  • Health
    • Mental Health
    Health
    Healthcare organizations are operating on slimmer profit margins than ever. One report in August showed that they are even lower than the beginning of the…
    Show More
    Top News
    bowl of vegetable salad
    Raw Foods: benefits and harms
    November 9, 2021
    pros and cons of the keto diet
    Read This Before You Follow the Keto Diet
    May 18, 2022
    spinal cord injuries
    4 Potential Causes of Spinal Cord Injuries (and How to Seek Compensation)
    May 25, 2022
    Latest News
    Beyond Nutrition: Everyday Foods That Support Whole-Body Health
    June 15, 2025
    The Wide-Ranging Benefits of Magnesium Supplements
    June 11, 2025
    The Best Home Remedies for Migraines
    June 5, 2025
    The Hidden Impact Of Stress On Your Body’s Alignment And Balance
    May 22, 2025
  • Policy and Law
    • Global Healthcare
    • Medical Ethics
    Policy and Law
    Get the latest updates about Insurance policies and Laws in the Healthcare industry for different geographical locations.
    Show More
    Top News
    The key stakeholders involved in improving healthcare policy
    The Key Stakeholders involved in Improving Healthcare Policy
    October 26, 2023
    medical erros avoid
    How to Report Medication Errors and Why It’s Important
    November 17, 2024
    Essential Steps for Developing a Life Care Plan
    Essential Steps for Developing a Life Care Plan
    December 26, 2024
    Latest News
    Top HIPAA-Compliant Messaging Apps for Healthcare Teams
    June 25, 2025
    When Healthcare Ends, the Legal Process Begins: What Families Should Know About Probate and Medical Estates
    June 20, 2025
    Preventing Contamination In Healthcare Facilities Starts With Hygiene
    June 15, 2025
    Strengthening Healthcare Systems Through Clinical and Administrative Career Development
    June 13, 2025
  • Medical Innovations
  • News
  • Wellness
  • Tech
Search
© 2023 HealthWorks Collective. All Rights Reserved.
Reading: The Still-Early State of Online Doctor Reviews
Share
Notification Show More
Font ResizerAa
Health Works CollectiveHealth Works Collective
Font ResizerAa
Search
Follow US
  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy
© 2023 HealthWorks Collective. All Rights Reserved.
Health Works Collective > eHealth > Social Media > The Still-Early State of Online Doctor Reviews
BusinessSocial Media

The Still-Early State of Online Doctor Reviews

DavidEWilliams
Last updated: April 2, 2013 7:54 am
DavidEWilliams
Share
9 Min Read
Image
SHARE

Image

Image

A front-page Boston Globe article on a neurosurgeon suing a caregiver for a harsh blog post  is exciting but unrepresentative of the overall state of online doctor reviews. However it caused me to take another look at online physician ratings from the perspective of someone trying to find a doctor. Conclusion: we are still in the early days and there is plenty of opportunity for better, more useful information. It’s still difficult to use the sites for real decision making.

First I tried searching HealthGrades, Yelp, Angie’s List and Massachusetts Health Quality Partners (MHQP) for information on something I really care about. I typed in the name of a medical specialist at a local academic medical center who is caring for a family member with a serious illness. This doctor has been in practice for 20 years but only one site I looked at (HealthGrades) had any reviews, and those two were not detailed. I then looked for other specialists and found that there are typically very few reviews available. It’s unusual to find more than five reviews for a given specialist on any one site, although I’m sure there are some exceptions. MHQP doesn’t include specialists.

More Read

Social Networking Analysis Shows Promise for mHealth – video interview
Is Your Hospital Brave Enough to Publish Online Physician Reviews?
Top 3 Healthcare Trends of 2016
Talking Healthcare with Don Berwick, Candidate for Governor of Massachusetts
Evolent CEO Frank Williams on Transforming Healthcare [TRANSCRIPT]

Next I turned to primary care. The information is better –MHQP in particular stands out on data quality– but there is still a lot to be desired. I searched for my physician, Dr. Johanna Klein of the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center’s Washington Square Group. Here’s what I found:

Healthgrades — a listing with a lot of publicly available information (address, phone, insurance, date of graduation) plus seven patient experience surveys showing that people generally like her

Angie’s List — which I paid $11 to join– has a confusing search function. I found Dr. Klein but no reviews for her. There were 16 reviews for the broader medical group, though, enough to get a general idea of the practice and some specific doctors within it. One of the reviews is harsh “I seriously question if she has actual medical training…” but most are pretty sober, boring and don’t sway me one way or the other. This site was the most disappointing overall and I don’t recommend subscribing.

Yelp –is the liveliest of the sites, at least in its reviews of this practice, and also incorporates some of the most innovative social media features. There are 7 reviews, 3 of which give 5 stars, 3 with 1 star and 1 with 2 stars. In addition to the rating most have a significant amount of text –quite a bit more than Angie’s List. Reviews are sorted by “Yelp Sort” as a default and can also be sorted by date, rating, Elites (a Yelp designation for evangelists) and Facebook friends. The Yelp sort takes into account various factors –like user votes and recency– to list the most helpful reviews first. Each reviewer has her or her first name, last initial, town and photo displayed, along with the number of Yelp friends, number of reviews posted and how many times they have “checked in” at the location. Clicking on the reviewer’s name provides a profile of the person, ratings of the usefulness of the person’s reviews, and a distribution of the person’s ratings. The distribution of ratings is interesting because it gets to a key concern physicians have about ratings: are they just posted by people with negative experiences?

The Yelp sort did an excellent job of ranking the ratings. The first review is by a person with multiple chronic illnesses who’s seen a specific doctor at the practice for 10 years and gave 5 stars. She had many specific things to report about her doctor and clearly had plenty of basis for her comments. Four people had rated the review helpful, and it showed that she had checked in twice on Yelp while at the practice (compared to none for the others).

The next two reviewers gave low ratings: 2 stars and 1 star. These reviewers have written more than 150 reviews each –awarding 4 or 5 stars in the vast majority of cases– so this is a helpful credibility builder for me.

The last 2 reviews –1 star each– are written by people with no Yelp friends and only a few reviews. The negative ratings are based on specific anecdotes and even though one has six “useful” votes it is still at the bottom, where I think it deserves to be.

Overall the reviews rung true to me based on my own experience.

MHQP is much more scientifically rigorous than the rest of the sites, and its data forms the basis for Consumer Reports’ recent report on physician quality in Massachusetts. Data on clinical quality comes from health plan data and patient experience is derived from a statewide survey. In patient experience there are 90 responses for the Washington Square Group. Results are also displayed as one to four stars, but here the stars have a statistical basis: e.g., 4 stars means an office did better than 85 percent of others in the survey, 1 star means it did worse than 85 percent of the offices. MHQP also enables a side-by-side comparison of different offices, which is a nifty feature.

Despite the harshness of some of the Yelp reviews of my practice the picture painted by the MHQP results are –if anything– worse. There are quite a few categories with 1 star (e.g., How well doctors give preventive care and advice) and few with 4. And yet 71 percent of the Washington Square Group’s respondents say they would “definitely” recommend their doctor and 19 percent say “probably.” Because of its statistical rigor the MHQP site is bereft of qualitative comments that could shed light on the findings, and results are reported at the level of the group rather than for individual physicians. And of course MHQP is only available in Massachusetts, although certain other states and regions have similar resources.

I looked at these websites when I picked my primary care physician. They didn’t have much influence on me then and wouldn’t today. In the end the number one issue was finding a specific physician I liked –and as mentioned there is essentially nothing documented on my doctor. Instead I relied on my previous doctor’s recommendation after eliminating a few other potential choices. Location was also important and I wanted someone within the Beth Israel system because I like the hospital and my records are on the PatientSite portal. I do have some concerns about the overall customer service of the practice and some of the low MHQP ratings, but figure if I watch out for myself that these things won’t affect me.

In an ideal world the rigor of MHQP ratings would be extended to the individual physician level –at least for certain measures– and to medical and surgical specialists. Physicians or practice manager would also have a way to reply to the ratings and reviews at least in a general way. If some of the Yelp approach could be applied to add texture to the data through user commentary then we’d really have something.

image:doctorratings/shutterstock

 

TAGGED:online physician reviews
Share This Article
Facebook Copy Link Print
Share

Stay Connected

1.5kFollowersLike
4.5kFollowersFollow
2.8kFollowersPin
136kSubscribersSubscribe

Latest News

women dental care
What Is a Smile Makeover and How Much Does It Cost?
Dental health
June 30, 2025
HIPAA-Compliant Messaging Apps
Top HIPAA-Compliant Messaging Apps for Healthcare Teams
Global Healthcare Policy & Law Technology
June 25, 2025
recovering from injury
Rebuilding After Injury: Path to Physical and Emotional Recovery
News
June 22, 2025
scientist using microscope
When Healthcare Ends, the Legal Process Begins: What Families Should Know About Probate and Medical Estates
Global Healthcare
June 18, 2025

You Might also Like

pharma patient education
Business

Metaphor in Video: Simple Ways to Improve Patient Education and Boost ROI

August 16, 2013
Image
BusinessHealth ReformPolicy & Law

Exchanges Offer More Than Just a Product under ACA

March 27, 2013
Hospital AdministrationMedical EducationMedical InnovationsNewsSocial MediaTechnology

The Insider’s Guide to Nurses and the Internet

November 11, 2011

Seal the Deal: the Defining Role of Public Relations in Health Care Policymaking

September 17, 2013
Subscribe
Subscribe to our newsletter to get our newest articles instantly!
Follow US
© 2008-2025 HealthWorks Collective. All Rights Reserved.
  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy
Welcome Back!

Sign in to your account

Username or Email Address
Password

Lost your password?