How to rate a physician?—A framework for physician ratings and what they mean

Abstract

With the possibility to exchange consumption information over the internet, rating websites have emerged in large quantity. Also, healthcare evaluations, especially physician ratings, are part of this trend. The volume of physician rating websites shows the same quantity of different rating criteria on which patients can evaluate their physician and healthcare service. We adapted patient satisfaction literature to generate a framework how these ratings constitute. A quantitative study in southern Germany was conducted to evaluate the research model using structural equation modelling. Our findings show several implications on how a rating framework should look like and also how patients should interpret physician ratings in terms of their information value. In essence, physician ratings cannot accurately predict the quality of the healthcare service, but are rather a measure how sympathetic the physician appears to the patient.