An Analysis of Online Evaluations on Physician-Rating Websites (PRW) at the Example of the German Integrated Healthcare Network "Quality and Efficiency"

Objective: The objective of the present studywas to investigate the current status of online physician evaluations on German PRWs. Therefore, we studied 106 physicians from the Integrated Healthcare Network "Quality and Efficiency", located in Nuremberg, Bavaria. Methods: 1. Five relevant German PRWs were chosen. 2. Data was collected for the 106 physicians on the five PRWs. Two authors independently carried out the data collection (date of data collection 08/11/2012). 3. Descriptive analysis was conducted addressing ten literature-based issues. 4. Discussion of our results with national and international published results. Results: The following German PRWs were considered: Arztauskunft, Imedo, Jameda, DocInsider, and the Weisse Liste. It could be shown that 96 % of all physicians could be identified on the websites. On average, 50 % of all physicians were rated at least once. However, great differences between the websites could be detected (Min 29 %, Max 81 %). The percentage of physicians with at least 5 respectively 10 ratings was calculated to be 17 % respectively 9 %. A mean of 3.08 ratings per physicians could be counted (range 0.45-9.03, SD 3.71). Most ratings were positive; approximately 75 % could be assigned to the best rating category and only 5 % to the worst rating category. Mean length of narrative comments was 28 words, 86 % were favorable. We could not find any evidence of " doctorbashing" or defamation. Conclusions: The number of online evaluations on German PRWs has been increasing. Both, the mean number of ratings as well as the percentage of rated physicians has further risen. The numbers determined exceed those from the US but, in general, are in line with respect to the nature and results of the ratings. However, our findings have to be interpreted with cautious since our analysis is based on a sample of physicians of a local German region.