Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, University of Miami Hospital, 1400 NW 12th Ave, Miami, FL 33136, USA.
Department of Education, The University of Miami Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine, 1600 NW 10th Ave #1140, Miami, FL 33136, USA.
Spine J. 2018 Nov;18(11):2081-2090. doi: 10.1016/j.spinee.2018.04.023. Epub 2018 Apr 27.
The future of health care is consumer driven with a focus on outcome metrics and patient feedback. Physician review websites have grown in popularity and are guiding patients to certain health-care providers, for better or worse. No prior study has specifically evaluated Internet reviews of spine surgeons, determined if social media (SM) correlates with patient reviews, or evaluated Google as a physician review website.
This study aimed to evaluate patient satisfaction scores for spine surgeons in Florida using leading physician ratings websites.
A retrospective study was carried out.
The sample comprised spine surgeons with a review on Healthgrades.com (HG), Vitals.com (V), or Google.com (G) online rating websites as of August 17, 2017.
Number of ratings, number of comments, overall rating, patient-reported wait times, physician website presence, and physician SM presence were the outcome measures.
Using the directory of registered North American Spine Society physicians, we identified all spine surgeons practicing in Florida (137 orthopedic trained; 78 neurosurgery trained). Surgeon demographics and ratings data were collected from three physician rating websites (HG, V, G) from July 19, 2017 to August 17, 2017. Using only the first 10 search results from Google.com we then identified if the surgeon had accounts on Facebook (FB), Twitter (TW), or Instagram (IG).
Nearly every surgeon in this cohort had either an institutional or personal website (98.1%), and 38.6% had at least one SM outlet of our three reviewed. Both personal and institutional website presence significantly correlated with higher G scores. Spine surgeons with a searchable account on FB, TW, or IG made up 35.4%, 10.2%, and 0.5% of the cohort, respectively. Surgeons with an SM presence had a significantly higher number of ratings and comments on HG, V, and G, but not overall scores. In multivariable analysis, only V showed a significant inverse correlation between overall score and age, private institution, and orthopedic surgery training. Wait times >30 minutes were significantly associated with worse overall scores across all three review sites. Overall ratings between HG, V, and G all had significantly positive correlations on Pearson correlation analysis.
Social media presence correlates with patient communication in the form of number of ratings and comments, yet does not impact overall scores, suggesting social media may influence patient feedback. Longer wait times are indicative of lower scores across all three platforms. Overall ratings from all three websites correlate significantly with each other, indicating agreement between physician ratings across different platforms. Understanding the factors that optimize a patient's overall experience with a physician is an important and emerging outcome measure for the future of patient-centered health care.
未来的医疗保健将由消费者驱动，重点关注结果指标和患者反馈。医生评价网站越来越受欢迎，正在引导患者选择某些医疗保健提供者，无论好坏。以前没有研究专门评估过脊柱外科医生的互联网评论，也没有确定社交媒体 (SM) 是否与患者评论相关，或者评估过谷歌作为医生评论网站。
本研究旨在使用领先的医生评级网站评估佛罗里达州脊柱外科医生的患者满意度评分。
回顾性研究。
样本包括截至 2017 年 8 月 17 日在 Healthgrades.com（HG）、Vitals.com（V）或 Google.com（G）在线评级网站上有评论的脊柱外科医生。
测量指标包括评分数量、评论数量、总体评分、患者报告的等待时间、医生网站存在情况和医生 SM 存在情况。
使用北美脊柱协会注册医生名录，我们确定了在佛罗里达州执业的所有脊柱外科医生（137 名骨科培训医生；78 名神经外科培训医生）。从 2017 年 7 月 19 日至 2017 年 8 月 17 日，从三个医生评级网站（HG、V、G）收集外科医生的人口统计学和评级数据。仅使用 Google.com 的前 10 个搜索结果，我们确定外科医生是否在 Facebook（FB）、Twitter（TW）或 Instagram（IG）上有账户。
本研究队列中的几乎每个外科医生都有机构或个人网站（98.1%），38.6%的人至少有我们审查的三个社交媒体中的一个。个人和机构网站的存在与 G 评分显著相关。在 FB、TW 或 IG 上有可搜索账户的外科医生分别占队列的 35.4%、10.2%和 0.5%。在 HG、V 和 G 上具有 SM 存在的外科医生的评分和评论数量显著更多，但总体评分没有差异。多变量分析显示，只有 V 显示出总体评分与年龄、私立机构和骨科手术培训之间的显著负相关。等待时间超过 30 分钟与所有三个审查站点的总体评分显著相关。在 Pearson 相关分析中，HG、V 和 G 之间的总体评分均呈显著正相关。
社交媒体的存在与患者通过评分和评论进行的沟通相关，但不会影响总体评分，表明社交媒体可能会影响患者的反馈。所有三个平台上，较长的等待时间与较低的评分相关。所有三个网站的总体评分之间呈显著正相关，表明不同平台上的医生评分具有一致性。了解优化患者对医生整体体验的因素是未来以患者为中心的医疗保健的一个重要和新兴的结果衡量标准。
