Online Patient Ratings of Hand Surgeons: N/A - Not a clinical study

Abstract

The primary aim of this study was to evaluate online patient ratings (OPRs) of hand surgeons. We hypothesized that (1Kadry B. Chu L.F. Kadry B. Gammas D. Macario A. Analysis of 4999 online physician ratings indicates that most patients give physicians a favorable rating.J Med Internet Res. 2011; 13: e95Crossref PubMed Scopus (191) Google Scholar) the majority of hand surgeons would be rated online, (2Emmert M. Meier F. Heider A.K. Durr C. Sander U. What do patients say about their physicians? An analysis of 3000 narrative comments posted on a German physician rating website.Health Policy. 2014; 118: 66-73Abstract Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (86) Google Scholar) surgeons with greater online presence would have higher OPRs, and (3Hanauer D.A. Zheng K. Singer D.C. Gebremariam A. Davis M.M. Public awareness, perception, and use of online physician rating sites.JAMA. 2014; 311: 734-735Crossref PubMed Scopus (265) Google Scholar) positive comments posted on rating websites would more likely reflect surgeon-dependent factors, while negative comments would more likely reflect surgeon-independent factors. 250 US hand surgeons were randomly selected from the ASSH online member directory. We reviewed surgeon profiles on three of the most commonly visited OPR websites: HealthGrades.com, Vitals.com and RateMDs.com [1]. Written comments were categorized into 6 groups: professional competence, communication, cost, overall assessment, staff and office practice [2]. Surgeon-specific data were also collected from Google, Facebook and Twitter. Independent sample t tests were used to compare OPRs between surgeons who had a website, Facebook or Twitter page. One way ANOVA was used to analyze the mean number of written comments between groups. Analyses were conducted with SPSS version 22.0. 250 hand surgeons from 43 states were included in this study. 245 hand surgeons (98%) had at least one OPR among the three websites. The number and magnitude of OPRs are presented in Figure 1. When Google searching hand surgeons, the mean number of top 10 results dedicated to OPR websites was 3.4. 220 hand surgeons (88%) had a professional website. Links to professional Facebook and Twitter pages were listed on 113 (45%) and 50 (20%) surgeon websites, respectively. Surgeons with an increased online presence (i.e. website, Facebook or Twitter pages) had significantly higher OPRs on RateMDs.com (P < 0.01, 0.02, 0.02, respectively) and Vitals.com (P < 0.01, 0.80, 0.08, respectively). Positive online comments were found to be more likely associated with surgeon-dependent factors (i.e. clinical outcomes), while negative comments more likely reflected surgeon-independent factors (e.g. wait time, office staff, cost) (Figure 2). •OPR websites are increasingly utilized by patients to inform decision-making, despite potential concerns regarding validity [3-6].•OPR websites feature prominently on Google and 98% of hand surgeons are reviewed online.•This is the first study to evaluate hand surgeon OPRs, assess factors associated with positive OPRs in orthopedic surgeons, and/or correlate physician online presence with OPRs.•This is the first study to distinguish between physician-dependent and physician-independent factors with respect to positive and negative written OPRs, respectively. This finding highlights a fundamental difference in how patients and physicians assess care quality.View Large Image Figure ViewerDownload Hi-res image Download (PPT)