The Influence of Physician-Rating Websites on Patient Physician Preference

BACKGROUD: Physician-rating websites (PRWs) are designed to publicly report physician quality information while bringing forth a sense of transparency. This study looks to identify the influence PRWs have on a patient's choice of orthopedic hand surgeon while stratifying patient physician preference by various demographic characteristics. METHODS: This survey-based study was conducted in a suburban outpatient orthopedic hand practice. All patients between 18 to 89 years of age who presented for an appointment were asked to participate. Survey questions aimed to identify patient demographics and the sources patients used to choose their hand surgeon. RESULTS: Overall, 104 patients completed our survey. Our study population was predominantly between 51 and 70 years of age (50.0%), women (60.6%), and Caucasian (84.6%), received a general education degree or high school diploma (36.5%), was employed (49.0%), and owned private health insurance (59.6%). One hundred and two patients (98.1%) answered that their physician's reputation is important. Seventy-five patients (72.1%) reported that they heard about their surgeon by physician referral, while only two (1.9%) used online search engines. Sixty-six patients (63.5%) noted that physician referrals were most trustworthy. Only 10 patients (9.6%) consulted PRWs to choose their surgeon, most of whom were younger than 50 years (n = 6), Caucasian (n = 8), and employed (n = 7) and had schooling after high school (n = 8). CONCLUSIONS: Despite increases in digital information exchange platforms, PRWs are not commonly used by suburban orthopedic hand patients to exchange information about or choose their hand surgeon. Patients still primarily rely on physician referrals and word of mouth from family and friends to choose their surgeon.