According to what I learned from researching this topic, only about
5% of patients take the time to write and post a review of their doctors on a doctor-rating website.
And doing so probably hasn't been a priority for most of us here, either.
But the searching and reading I did turned up some rather interesting facts about
this activity, and facts probably worth at least being aware of.
For example,
about
60% of patients looking for a new doctor admit to reading online doctor reviews, and about
80% of those who do say they are "somewhat" influenced by them.
Almost all sites I visited suggested that one be suspicious of reviews with extremely high or extremely low ratings.
As one site put it: "A savvy reader will typically weigh the comments in their totality and turn to the most balanced ones to gain actual insight."
From another site:
" ... anonymous and extremely negative online reviews are typically posted by drug seekers (who failed to get drugs from the doctor). Similarly, a glowing or unrealistic review (may be) ... posted by the healthcare provider's friends or family, and may not offer true insight that could be valuable for your situation."Balanced reviews, listing both good points about
the doctor, as well as listing areas wanting improvement, are likely the ones that are most trustworthy.
Here's a site with a variety of additional statistics on this (the most popular online doctor review sites, what patients value most in such reviews, those doctor skills most likely to be reviewed). It's from a few years ago but still seems informative:
https://www.softwareadvice.com/resources/medical-online-reviews-report-2014/#:~:text=our%20survey%20found%20that%20the%20majority%20%2861%20percent%29,their%20current%20doctor.%20when%20patients%20use%20online%20reviewsFrom this site:
"(One) study, for example, found that just 5 percent of patients leave physician reviews online."
" ... we wanted to learn when patients are most likely to use online reviews. Our survey found that the majority (61 percent) use them prior to choosing a doctor."
" ... 85 percent of respondents said they’d be at least “moderately likely” to choose one doctor over another based on positive reviews."
" ... 19 percent of online reviews are negative ... 43 percent of respondents say they usually write something positive, while another 28 percent say their responses tend to be neutral."
" ... nearly half of respondents (44 percent) said they would consider going to an out-of-network doctor if their reviews were better than those of in-network doctors."
" ... the longer reviews remain on reviews sites and the more people leave them, the more ‘valuable’ they become as an information asset.”
" ... we wanted to learn which websites respondents use most frequently to leave or consult reviews. Yelp secured the top spot, used by 27 percent of respondents, while Healthgrades and RateMDs each came in at 26 percent."
"In 2013, Yelp was overwhelmingly the most trusted site for online physician reviews, at 44 percent. This year, however, Healthgrades has pulled even with Yelp, with both sites accounting for 26 percent of respondents. As previously noted, Rate MDs was not included in last year’s survey. In 2014, however, 24 percent believe it to be the most trustworthy site."Especially interesting in this article is the listing of topics that seem predominate in patients' minds when they write reviews of their doctors.
All of the websites I saw implied that posting an online review of a doctor is a serious matter, and should be done fairly and objectively. Be brief. Avoid putting personal feelings about
the doctor into the review, and present only the facts. Of course say nothing that can be legally challenged.
Some sample reviews as to what one might say when composing a doctor review:
https://doctorscare.com/patienttestimonials/There are also a good number of sites out there offering advice on how to go about
writing and posting a review on one's doctor, and the main rating sites, such as the ones mentioned above, provide their own on-site instructions.
Again, perhaps not a priority to do for most of us, but the option to do so is always there if some of us want to pursue it at some point.