Doctor Ratings: Getting The Most Out Of Patient Experience

Having the ability to find doctor ratings online, and the convenience of viewing those ratings from current and former patients, is helping countless people locate and select the right doctor for themselves and their family members---and in some cases, even their pets! Once you access the doctor or clinic’s review site, either via a search engine or directly, you are able to see a range of information about the practice, including the doctor’s credentials, basic office information, and comments from clients regarding their experience with the doctor. Unfortunately, having access to all this information won’t do you much good unless you understand how to make the best use of it.

In your search to find the best care possible, you might be tempted to think that the higher the doctor’s rating, the better the practitioner is, but this is not always the case. In addition to how many points the doctors were given by patients overall, take an extra few minutes to check as many of their individual ratings as you can. In this case, quality is more important than quantity. It could be that one doctor’s standing is higher due to the volume of ratings, or a number of other factors. Obviously, a doctor who receives 70 comments and reviews will be listed higher in the standings than one who only has 25. However, if 22 of the 25 comments were positive, that candidate would be considered a more highly recommended practitioner than her colleague, who has 70 reviews, but only 30 complimentary comments.

Another important part of successfully using these sites is realizing how the number of doctor ratings each practitioner was given affects the overall scores. Suppose the site says that Dr. Smith has 3 stars, but when you go to evaluate the comments from his patients, you discover that only five patients left comments. Of those, two were less than favorable, or had little to do with their actual experience with the doctor. This would explain the three stars rating overall. By the same token, it is possible to have another individual, Dr. Moore, listed as a five-star doctor. However, in reality, only two or three of the twenty patients who left comments actually rated his care at five stars.

The final piece of advice regarding making the best use of doctor ratings sites is knowing the value of the comments provided by other patients. Read all of the comments available, and try to keep a tally of how many positive and how many negative comments were received. Look at the type of comments, as well, and decide what would and would not be a deal breaker for you, were the comment given completely accurate and unbiased. The reason this in-depth review is important is that, while it is easy for one or two negative or less favorable remarks to drop a doctor’s rating down several points overall, if the majority of the remarks appear to be favorable, it is very likely that the doctor or practice is a good one. When you are reviewing the comments, try to keep in mind that they are based in part on biased opinion, and as such, can be influenced by a number of factors.