Abstract
How accurate and useful are online reviews of physicians? At a basic level, do online reviews meaningfully differentiate physicians with problematic medical malpractice (med mal) and disciplinary records from physicians with clean records? We compare the online reviews of 221 “Questionable physicians” from Illinois and Indiana (each of whom had multiple paid med mal claims and disciplinary sanctions) with matched control physicians with clean med mal and disciplinary records. Across five prominent online rating services, we find small, mostly insignificant differences in the star ratings and written reviews of Questionable versus control physicians, and only modest correlation in the ratings of the same physicians across different rating services. Online rating services also fail to capture the information provided by physicians’ med mal and disciplinary records; the only rating service that reports on med mal claims and disciplinary actions (Healthgrades) misses more than 90% of these actions. Patients that want to avoid Questionable physicians should not rely on online rating services to help them do so. Our findings also raise serious questions about the utility of patient-generated quality measures in evaluating physician performance.
Published Version
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