What Affects an Orthopaedic Surgeon's Online Rating? A Large-Scale, Retrospective Analysis

Abstract

Introduction: In the past decade, online physician review websites have become an important source of information for patients, with the largest and most popular being Healthgrades.com. Our study aims to investigate demographic and volume-based trends for online reviews of every Healthgrades-listed orthopaedic surgeon through a nationwide, retrospective analysis. Methods: All available demographic and rating information for orthopaedic surgeons (n = 28,713; Healthgrades.com) was analyzed using one-way Analysis of Variance, Tukey Studentized Range (Honestly Significant Difference), linear regression, and Pearson correlation coefficient. Results: The mean rating for all surgeons was 3.99 (SD 0.92), and the mean number of ratings was 13.43 (SD 20.4). Men had a greater mean rating at 4.02 compared with women at 3.91 (P , 0.0001), and DO surgeons had greater mean rating at 4.11 compared with MD surgeons at 3.90 (P , 0.0001). The correlation between rating and age had a significant negative correlation (P , 0.0001). The correlation between average online rating and number of reviews had a significant positive correlation (P , 0.0001). Discussion: Our analysis suggests that greater online ratings are associated with the male sex and DO degrees. In addition, our study discovered that the number of ratings was positively correlated with greater mean online ratings, whereas older age was negatively correlated with greater mean online ratings. With the advent of digital information technology, online physician review websites have become a major source of information for patients. Studies suggest that 25% to 72% of Americans use online reviews when selecting a healthcare provider. 1,2 As of 2010, over 33 different physician rating websites had been identified, 3 with the largest and most popular being Healthgrades.com. 4 Healthgrades.com allows anyone with internet access to rate a physician or hospital from one to five stars in several different categories. The mean of all reviews is posted anonymously on the physician's public