Online reviews of orthopedic surgeons: an emerging trend

Various websites are dedicated to rating physicians. The goals of this study were to: (1) evaluate the prevalence of orthopedic surgeon ratings on physician rating websites in the United States and (2) evaluate factors that may affect ratings, such as sex, practice sector (academic or private), years of practice, and geographic location. A total of 557 orthopedic surgeons selected from the 30 most populated US cities were enrolled. The study period was June 1 to July 31, 2013. Practice type (academic vs private), sex, geographic location, and years since completion of training were evaluated. For each orthopedic surgeon, numeric ratings from 7 physician rating websites were collected. The ratings were standardized on a scale of 0 to 100. Written reviews were also collected and categorized as positive or negative. Of the 557 orthopedic surgeons, 525 (94.3%) were rated at least once on 1 of the physician rating websites. The average rating was 71.4. The study included 39 female physicians (7.4%) and 486 male physicians (92.6%). There were 204 (38.9%) physicians in academic practice and 321 (61.1%) in private practice. The greatest number of physicians, 281 (50.4%), practiced in the South and Southeast, whereas 276 (49.6%) practiced in the West, Midwest, and Northeast. Those in academic practice had significantly higher ratings (74.4 vs 71.1; P<.007). No significant difference based on sex (72.5 male physicians vs 70.2 female physicians; P=.17) or geographic location (P=.11) were noted. Most comments (64.6%) were positive or extremely positive. Physicians who were in practice for 6 to 10 years had significantly higher ratings (76.9, P<.01) than those in practice for 0 to 5 years (70.5) or for 21 or more years (70.7).