What Do Patients Say About Doctors Online? A Systematic Review of Studies on Patient Online Reviews

Abstract

Background The number of patient online reviews (PORs) has grown significantly, and PORs have played an increasingly important role in patients’ choice of health care providers. Objective The objective of our study was to systematically review studies on PORs, summarize the major findings and study characteristics, identify literature gaps, and make recommendations for future research. Methods A major database search was completed in January 2019. Studies were included if they (1) focused on PORs of physicians and hospitals, (2) reported qualitative or quantitative results from analysis of PORs, and (3) peer-reviewed empirical studies. Study characteristics and major findings were synthesized using predesigned tables. Results A total of 63 studies (69 articles) that met the above criteria were included in the review. Most studies (n=48) were conducted in the United States, including Puerto Rico, and the remaining were from Europe, Australia, and China. Earlier studies (published before 2010) used content analysis with small sample sizes; more recent studies retrieved and analyzed larger datasets using machine learning technologies. The number of PORs ranged from fewer than 200 to over 700,000. About 90% of the studies were focused on clinicians, typically specialists such as surgeons; 27% covered health care organizations, typically hospitals; and some studied both. A majority of PORs were positive and patients’ comments on their providers were favorable. Although most studies were descriptive, some compared PORs with traditional surveys of patient experience and found a high degree of correlation and some compared PORs with clinical outcomes but found a low level of correlation. Conclusions PORs contain valuable information that can generate insights into quality of care and patient-provider relationship, but it has not been systematically used for studies of health care quality. With the advancement of machine learning and data analysis tools, we anticipate more research on PORs based on testable hypotheses and rigorous analytic methods. Trial Registration International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews (PROSPERO) CRD42018085057; https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/PROSPERO/display_record.php?RecordID=85057 (Archived by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/76ddvTZ1C)

Assessing Patient Experience and Healthcare Quality of Dental Care Using Patient Online Reviews in the United States: Mixed Methods Study

“…Our data also showed that higher overall ratings were associated with shorter wait times ( g =0.26). This finding has been reported and discussed in several studies of online patient reviews [ 1 ]. Patient review websites such as HealthGrades and RateMDs have included “wait time/punctuality” as a default measure for healthcare providers.…”

“…Over the last few years, researchers have begun a systematic analysis of online patient reviews. In the United States, several empirical studies investigating online reviews of general healthcare services and specialties are well documented, but such studies have not been performed in dentistry [ 1 ]. To the best of our knowledge, this study represents the first study of online reviews of dental care in the United States.…”

“…Over the last few years, patient review websites have gained increasing interest among health consumers, academic communities, and healthcare providers [ 1 , 2 ]. A tremendous amount of online patient reviews were shared with the public through patient review websites, becoming a common source of information for patients choosing a doctor.…”

“…Nearly 90% of the respondents rated listings of accepted health insurance on review sites as high importance [ 2 ]. Online patient review studies also found strong associations between ratings and doctor characteristics, such as gender, age, years of practice, online presence, and medical education and training, with variations at specialties [ 1 , 9 ].…”

“…Online patient reviews can inform better decision-making among patients and can be used to improve healthcare quality. As such, many studies on online patient reviews in a variety of medical specialties have been reported [ 1 ]. Nevertheless, analyses of online reviews of dentists are sparse.…”