title: Rating a Sports Medicine Surgeon's "Quality" in the Modern Era: an Analysis of Popular Physician Online Rating Websites.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Consumer-driven healthcare and an increasing emphasis on quality metrics have encouraged patient engagement in the rating of healthcare. As such, online physician rating websites have become mainstream and may play a potential role in future healthcare policy.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The purpose of this study was to evaluate online patient ratings for US sports medicine surgeons, determine predictors of positive ratings and analyze for inter-website scoring correlation.
  
  
  METHODS
  The American Orthopedic Society for Sports Medicine (AOSSM) member directory was sampled. Surgeon demographic and rating data were searched on three online physicians rating websites: HealthGrades.com (HG), RateMDs.com (RM) and Vitals.com (V). Written rating comments were categorized as relating to the following: surgeon competence, surgeon affability and process of care. Bivariate linear regression, Pearson correlation and multivariable analyses were used to determine factors associated with positive ratings.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Two hundred seventy-five sports medicine surgeons were included. Two hundred seventy-one (99%) had ratings on at least one of the three websites. Sports surgeons were rated highly across all three websites (mean >4.0/5); however, there was only a low to moderate degree of correlation among websites. On HG, female surgeons and surgeons in academia were more likely to receive higher overall ratings. Across all three websites, increased number of years in practice inversely correlated with ratings; this relationship neared significance for HG and was significant for RM. A surgeon's online presence or geographic location was not associated with higher ratings. In multivariable regression analysis for ratings on HG, female sex was the only significant predictor of higher ratings. Two thousand three hundred forty-one written comments were analyzed: perceived surgeon competence and communication influenced the direction of ratings for the top and bottom tier surgeons.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  There was a low degree of correlation among online websites for surgeon ratings. Female surgeons and those with fewer years in practice appear to have higher ratings on these websites; comment content analysis suggests that high and low ratings are influenced by perceived surgeon competence and affability.
authors.affiliation: Hospital for Special Surgery, 535 East 70th Street, New York, NY 10021 USA.
authors.forename: Benedict U
authors.initials: BU
authors.lastname: Nwachukwu
authors.affiliation: Hospital for Special Surgery, 535 East 70th Street, New York, NY 10021 USA.
authors.forename: Joshua
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Adjei
authors.affiliation: Hospital for Special Surgery, 535 East 70th Street, New York, NY 10021 USA.
authors.forename: Samir K
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Trehan
authors.affiliation: Hospital for Special Surgery, 535 East 70th Street, New York, NY 10021 USA.
authors.forename: Brenda
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.affiliation: Sports Medicine Department, SOAR Institute, Miami, FL 32901 USA.
authors.forename: Kelms
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Amoo-Achampong
authors.affiliation: Hospital for Special Surgery, 535 East 70th Street, New York, NY 10021 USA.
authors.forename: Joseph T
authors.initials: JT
authors.lastname: Nguyen
authors.affiliation: Hospital for Special Surgery, 535 East 70th Street, New York, NY 10021 USA.
authors.forename: Samuel A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Taylor
authors.affiliation: Sports Medicine Department, SOAR Institute, Miami, FL 32901 USA.
authors.forename: Frank
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: McCormick
authors.affiliation: Hospital for Special Surgery, 535 East 70th Street, New York, NY 10021 USA.
authors.forename: Anil S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Ranawat
keywords: healthcare policy; online surgeon ratings; quality; sports medicine