Risk Management and Healthcare Policy (May 2019)
Online physician reviews: is there a place for them?
Abstract
Gregory P Murphy,1 Kushan D Radadia,2 Benjamin N Breyer31Division of Urologic Surgery, Washington University, St. Louis, MO, USA; 2Division of Urology, Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, New Brunswick, NJ, USA; 3Department of Urology, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USAAbstract: Web-based physician ratings are increasingly popular but imperfect proxies for clinical competence. Yet they provide valuable information to patients and providers when taken in proper context. Providers need to embrace the reviews and use them to enact positive change in order to improve the quality of our patients’ experience. Patients need to realize the limitations of online ratings, particularly with smaller sample size and be discerning about the reasons behind the review.Keywords: online reviews, physician ratings, web-based physician rating systems
