How Patients Rate Physicians?

The health care sector has evolved exponentially with the growth of the internet. Customer-oriented health care management and patient satisfaction have become an important key factor for physicians to attract patients. In the current competitive environment, platforms such as Online health care (OHC), medical crowd-sourcing, Physician-Rating Websites (PRWs) are gaining popularity with time. Unlike the past where physician popularity was witnessed via word of mouth, at present several online search engines enable patients to locate physicians around them, based on several criteria such as patient’s illness type and physician’s expertise. Patients satisfaction influences the selection of a physician and leads to higher patient retention and better reviews. In general, positive reviews tend to increase the patient’s tendency to follow the advice given by physicians. In recent years PRW has emerged in the health care sector and is increasingly used by patients. Patients' involvement is either through posting an evaluation to give feedback to other patients based on their experience with a physician or selecting other physicians based on posted reviews. The growth of PRW has opened many windows to analyze the patient’s satisfaction and its key drivers. PRW data enables satisfaction analysis on the individual level of physicians and as well as implications on the overall level.