Physician Reviews: Whom Can You Trust?

Reading online physician reviews is a great way to learn more about potential doctors and specialists, as well as help you make more informed decisions as a patient. The problem is that not everyone’s opinion can always be trusted. The Internet is rife with complainers, spammers, and other troublemakers that skew reality or exaggerate in order to slander or promote doctors. While many ratings can be trusted, there are several easy ways to spot the honest ones from the fibbers.

Excessive name-dropping

If you’ve been scouring Internet forums and message boards for reviews on physicians or specialists, you may have come across some posts that appear a little bit “fishy.” They types of reviews are often written by forum users with few posts, no profiles, and who write about very similar topics. Often times these users will drop links and doctor names excessively. While it will sound like a very personal rating, it is a bit too commercial, which is usually the case. There are some agencies that try to promote doctors through using phony recommendations and comments. If it looks like spam, it probably is.

Incoherent

Ever read physician reviews that are, well, almost impossible to read? While most people using the Internet aren’t exactly spelling bee or grammar aces, they can string together a series of words in the proper order and manage to get some sort of message across. A comment or rating that consists of little to no punctuation, all caps or alternating caps, and is less understandable than a stream of conscious narrative, it is safe to write that opinion off as simply a spammer or someone who fell asleep with their head on the keyboard.

Unfair

There are many people who write physician reviews that are completely biased or take one small incident and blow it out of proportion. Even the best professionals make mistakes, so a reviewer who moans about hours and hours of waiting for an appointment can often be written off if the sentiment isn’t shared with others. People like to twist the truth or have high expectations and often get angry when their ideals are not meant. Many reviewers can be too harsh and unfair, or may simply have had a rotten day to begin with and push their negativity on their other experiences as well.

Confused and Vague

There are probably a lot more Dr. Smiths than you realize, which is why physician reviews that state something like, “Dr. John Doe was ok,” are probably not all that helpful or reliable. Make sure that any comments or opinions you are reading are based on the same doctor you are researching to avoid confusion. Also pay more attention to clearly worded and specific ideas rather than vague notions or broad statements. While several “he’s great” messages might say something about their work, two or three is not much to get excited over and these messages may have also been posted by the same person.