Popularity of internet physician rating sites and their apparent influence on patients’ choices of physicians

BACKGROUND: There has been a substantial increase in the number of on-line health care grading sites that offer patient feedback on physicians, staff and hospitals. Despite a growing interest among some consumers of medical services, most studies of Internet physician rating sites (IPRS) have restricted their analysis to sampling data from individual sites alone. Our objective was to explore the frequency with which patients visit and leave comments on IPRS, evaluate the nature of comments written and quantify the influence that positive comments, negative comments and physician medical malpractice history might have on patients' decisions to seek care from a particular physician. METHODS: One-thousand consecutive patients visiting the Pre-Operative Evaluation (POE) Clinic at Mayo Clinic in Rochester Minnesota between June 2013 and October 2013 were surveyed using a written questionnaire. RESULTS: A total of 854 respondents completed the survey to some degree. A large majority (84%) stated that they had not previously visited an IPRS. Of those writing comments on an IPRS in the past, just over a third (36%) provided either unfavorable (9 ) or a combination of favorable and unfavorable (27%) reviews of physician interactions. Among all respondents, 28.1% strongly agreed that a positive physician review alone on an IPRS would cause them to seek care from that practitioner. Similarly, 27% indicated that a negative IPRS review would cause them to choose against seeking care from that physician. Fewer than a third indicated that knowledge of a malpractice suit alone would negatively impact their decision to seek care from a physician. Whether a respondent had visited an IPRS in the past had no impact on the answers provided. CONCLUSIONS: Few patients had visited IPRS, with a limited number reporting that information provided on these sites would play a significant role in their decision to seek care from a particular physician.