Patients rarely use online ratings to pick physicians

But experts say online word-of-mouth is still considered a powerful tool, as people look for personal stories when learning about a new doctor.

By Pamela Lewis Dolan, AMNews staff. June 23/30, 2008.

For all the concern and mistrust over physician rating sites, recent research shows that, for now, few patients are using them to decide where to get their care.

A Harris Interactive poll commissioned by the California HealthCare Foundation found that although more than 80% of the state's adults turn to the Internet for health-related information, less than one-quarter have looked at physician ratings sites. Only 2% of those surveyed made a change in physicians based on information posted on a rating site.

That lack of reliance on ratings is not limited to choosing a physician. The survey, released in June, also found that only 1% of respondents made a change in their hospital or health plan based on ratings sites devoted to those entities.

To some, the numbers indicate that it may be a long time before physician rating sites catch on, if ever. To others, the numbers indicate that the market is new and that in time, use of the sites will grow as their information becomes more robust, or as insurers apply more pressure on members to use them through tiered networks. In such networks, health plan members pay less out of pocket for seeing physicians who meet the insurer's quality criteria, which doctors generally have criticized as faulty.

But even if rating sites aren't catching fire right now, experts say that doesn't mean that physicians shouldn't worry about their online reputations.

Word-of-mouth has long been considered the best -- and most critical -- advertisement, and that communication is happening on the Web, particularly on sites that are dedicated to specific diseases or conditions, experts say. The foundation survey discovered that the most frequent reason for using the Internet for health was finding information about specific diagnoses or symptoms.