Incomplete Information on Online Doctor Rating Sites

NPR reports on a study of online reviews of urologists, finding that there still aren't enough reviews on sites that rank doctors to make them reliable. Urologists averaged just 2.4 reviews on the big online doctor rating sites like Healthgrades.com, Vitals.com and RateMDs.com. The paltry number of participants means that one cranky patient's complaint — or a rave from one doctor's relative —can skew a rating. The 500 urologists surveyed averaged 2.4 reviews on 10 physician-ranking websites, with total reviews per doctor ranging from 64 to zero. The reviews were overwhelmingly positive, at 86 percent. But the negative reviews focused more on things like office decor than whether the doctor delivered good health care.

People may have figured this out for themselves, according to a survey coming out later this month from the Pew Internet Project. Researchers there found that while 80 percent of Internet users say they research products or services online, just 20 percent say they have used online reviews and rankings for providers of health care. Medicare has started collecting data on physician performance, but so far the government's Physician Compare website is useful only for finding doctors who accept Medicare for payment. That should change in the near future, as performance data mandated by the Affordable Care Act comes online.  In addition, community-based public reporting efforts, such as the Medicare Data Sharing program and the RWJF's Aligning Forces for Quality program, aim to provide more objective physician performance information to the public.