Healthcare Finance writes: Findings from a new study show physician satisfaction scores on online third-party review sites tend to be skewed and can easily mislead patients. Researchers conducting a new Cedars-Sinai study pulled reviews from October 2014 to March 2017 on Healthgrades, a consumer ratings website that ranks medical providers from 1-5 stars. The investigators linked this data to providers listed in the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ Physician Compare tool. They narrowed the field to 212,933 providers, who had at least four reviews evaluating overall patient satisfaction. They grouped the providers by medical, surgical and allied health specialties, and performed a statistical analysis to examine the distribution of the providers’ average satisfaction scores. The results showed overall satisfaction ratings that consistently skewed positively, fell within narrow ranges and had different distributions across specialties. As a result, scores that appear high might actually be comparatively average or low, effectively misleading patients. For example, if 90 percent of physicians in a particular specialty are rated higher than four stars, patients could be misled into thinking the physician they select is at the top of their field.
Read more:
- Healthcare Finance: http://www.healthcarefinancenews.com/news/physician-satisfaction-sites-its-time-tell-patients-not-use-them-single-source-information
- Differences in Online Consumer Ratings of Health Care Providers Across Medical, Surgical, and Allied Health Specialties: Observational Study of 212,933 Providers. Journal of Medical Internet Research. May 2018