Anyone else get somewhat annoyed/upset by bad patient reviews of DOs?

[deleted809499]

OMS-1 here. I've wasted a lot of time over the past year or so (and especially during COVID-19 times) looking up physicians in my area (searching for their CV, academic/private practice profiles, online patient reviews etc.). It's the exact same behavior that drives me to look up every actor in a movie I just watched and find out where they went to college, every movie they've starred in, who they're married to etc. I don't think I'm the only one who does this?

I know it really shouldn't affect me, but anyone else get kinda dismayed when they see a DO (and worse, a graduate of your school) with TERRIBLE patient reviews on sites like Zocdoc, Healthgrades and Vitals?

I understand that basically every doctor will have maybe 1 or 2 bad reviews. Generally though, positive reviews balance those out, and it seems like the best doctors score around ~ 4.5-4.8/5 on these websites.

But there's also some doctors with literally 50+ 1 star reviews with TERRIBLE comments. Complaints range from bad bedside manners, "sweet talking" you until they have your money, completely botching procedures, not taking complete histories (or histories at all), dismissing concerns etc.

Anyone feel kinda sucky when they see this from a DO? I feel like it affects me especially being a future DO because 1) there's already a widely established stigma against us and 2) we only make up ~10% of the physician workforce, so when one of us sucks, it stands out.

Thoughts?

(By the way, I'm in no way, shape or form annoyed at the patients leaving the bad reviews. I'm annoyed at the (seemingly) bad doctors causing them, and as a result negatively affecting the reputation of DOs)

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[Ho0v-man]

Some of the best docs in primary care are going to have terrible reviews. It’s because they don’t hand out benzos and opioids like candy and order every test just because the patient says so.

Meanwhile a cardiologist will do a cath and place a stent the patient may or may not need. Either way, he/she will get a huge thumbs up.

 

[deleted1005514]

Nope, I’m going to go out there with my training and be the best doctor I can be. Also, the comments Hoov-man referred to about doctors not handing out pain pills (or even antibiotics!) is true. You’ll probably never hear from the masses of patients you help in the future, but refuse someone unnecessary opioids, Ritalin or antibiotics and suddenly you’re the “worst doctor ever”.

You described this behavior as “compulsive”, have you sought help for this? It seems to be affecting you in a negative way.

 

[Chibucks15]

This seems like things that waste immense amounts of time. I would try to work on this because as you go further you’ll realize more and more to not look into too much reviews and such.

The only time the majority of people will ever lookup stuff like that is if you’re starting a new rotation and you want to see the general comparison of your attending compared to others. I’d recommend breaking this trend ASAP it gets you nowhere

 

[deleted480308]

Stop that

 

[AnatomyGrey12]

Patient reviews are next to worthless.

 

[Sardonix]

OMS-1 here. I've wasted easily over 100 hours over the past year or so (and especially during COVID-19 times) compulsively looking up physicians in my area (searching for their CV, academic/private practice profiles, online patient reviews etc.). It's the exact same compulsive behavior that drives me to look up every actor in a movie I just watched and find out where they went to college, every movie they've starred in, who they're married to etc. I don't think I'm the only one who does this?

I really hope that's not literal.

 

[Neopolymath]

Why would you care what a patient thinks of you as long as you are professional, competent as evaluated by your peers and governing bodies, and get the job done correctly? It's like me judging Tom Brady. Do you think he concerns himself with my opinion of his 3 step drop?

These people legitimately think 5g, pizzagate and insulin are a conspiracy. They are quite often too stupid to help themselves due to intelligence or education and are easily swayed by the internet and propaganda. One of the best parts of medicine is knowing that you are helping people indiscriminately who can't help themselves and frankly for a small portion of them, probably don't even really deserve help. But we do it anyways because that's what physicians do for all patients because it's the right thing to do. Reviews be damned.

Edit: You are right though about one thing, indirectly. A dumb DO means all DOs suck. A dumb MD is someone who slipped through the cracks. The difference is that is a problem with perception by some of our mentally challenged academic peers (not patients) that needs to be rectified. It's unrelated to angry reviews from benzo addicts.

 

[Prehealth1011]

Nah. We got much worse things to worry about.

(laughs in Gimpel)

 

[DrRedstone]

Things to realize:

1. Most patients are older Medicare types that likely wouldn't know how to give an online review even if they were asked.
2. Most negative review come from overly vocal people who regularly leave negative reviews because they feel slighted if things aren't 100% perfect.
3. Your first negative review on one of those sites is a badge of honor. It means you are actually treating patients. No one goes by without negative reviews.
4. Eating pizza is better than reading reviews. So eat more pizza.

 

[deleted809499]

I really hope that's not literal.

This is an exaggeration. I probably do spend too much time doing it though. Was bored and had too much free time in lockdown before the start of med school. I also use the word compulsively too casually here (forgot this is a medical forum lol).

 

[SLC]

Patient reviews are stupid. But in many places they’re a metric doc’s are judged by. They’re also not hard to excel at and no, you don’t have to hand out narcotics, Benzos or unnecessary testing. You just have to be facile with your medical knowledge and possess a modicum of bedside manner/interpersonal skills.

It starts with how you treat your staff. If they feel respected and valued, they’ll take that to the patient. This is the first interaction your patient will have during their encounter. It sets the tone. It’s hard to redeem an encounter that set off in the wrong foot.

Then you have to be willing to educate. Explain why narcotics aren’t indicated, why you think benzos are a bad idea. When someone requests an MRI and you disagree, walk them through how you came to that determination. They’re likely to see how vastly wider you knowledge base is than they even realized. Chances are they’ll be relieved. Always admit you could be wrong and are willing for that to be the case, and that their requested work up is still an option if things don’t work out like you think they will.

And always treat everyone with respect, at all times.

I have an average patient rating of 4.9/5 across all the review sites I can find. I just follow the advice above (which was given me by the department chair of my residency).

 

[DO2015CA]

People are most likely to leave bad reviews based on their experience not competency. Give me 1/5 stars x1000 if I know I did the medicine correctly

 

[Goro]

OMS-1 here. I've wasted a lot of time over the past year or so (and especially during COVID-19 times) looking up physicians in my area (searching for their CV, academic/private practice profiles, online patient reviews etc.). It's the exact same behavior that drives me to look up every actor in a movie I just watched and find out where they went to college, every movie they've starred in, who they're married to etc. I don't think I'm the only one who does this?

I know it really shouldn't affect me, but anyone else get kinda dismayed when they see a DO (and worse, a graduate of your school) with TERRIBLE patient reviews on sites like Zocdoc, Healthgrades and Vitals?

I understand that basically every doctor will have maybe 1 or 2 bad reviews. Generally though, positive reviews balance those out, and it seems like the best doctors score around ~ 4.5-4.8/5 on these websites.

But there's also some doctors with literally 50+ 1 star reviews with TERRIBLE comments. Complaints range from bad bedside manners, "sweet talking" you until they have your money, completely botching procedures, not taking complete histories (or histories at all), dismissing concerns etc.

Anyone feel kinda sucky when they see this from a DO? I feel like it affects me especially being a future DO because 1) there's already a widely established stigma against us and 2) we only make up ~10% of the physician workforce, so when one of us sucks, it stands out.

Thoughts?

(By the way, I'm in no way, shape or form annoyed at the patients leaving the bad reviews. I'm annoyed at the (seemingly) bad doctors causing them, and as a result negatively affecting the reputation of DOs)

Methinks some sampling bias is going on here.

 

[Allosteopath]

I just sampled the area around my school, the physicians with lowest reviews here are predominantly MDs, so maybe its just his area.

 

[zNoodlez]

The only reviews I take seriously are from ratemyprofessors 😀

 

[BoneWizard]

I mean, this also depends a bit on the specialty.
Again just N=a few but I've noticed most neurologists have lower ratings than say pediatrics or derm.

 

[EmilKraepelin55]

This isn’t unique to DO’s, I will tell you that. Focus on studying medicine, not cyberstalking people lol.

 

[Subdivisions Rush]

I don't take these review sites seriously even if I see a physician or PA give a bad, nasty review.

My dentist just told me the other day that he gave his cardiologist and her staff a good review because they were so kind to him.

However, if I see tons (maybe for example over 20) of bad reviews on a doctor, and these reviews are not from the same individual, I would wonder.

 

[Angus Avagadro]

Why would you care what a patient thinks of you as long as you are professional, competent as evaluated by your peers and governing bodies, and get the job done correctly? It's like me judging Tom Brady. Do you think he concerns himself with my opinion of his 3 step drop?

These people legitimately think 5g, pizzagate and insulin are a conspiracy. They are quite often too stupid to help themselves due to intelligence or education and are easily swayed by the internet and propaganda. One of the best parts of medicine is knowing that you are helping people indiscriminately who can't help themselves and frankly for a small portion of them, probably don't even really deserve help. But we do it anyways because that's what physicians do for all patients because it's the right thing to do. Reviews be damned.

Edit: You are right though about one thing, indirectly. A dumb DO means all DOs suck. A dumb MD is someone who slipped through the cracks. The difference is that is a problem with perception by some of our mentally challenged academic peers (not patients) that needs to be rectified. It's unrelated to angry reviews from benzo addicts.

Torally agree. I must admit i was a little harder on DO students who were on my service. One DO not up to speed makes us all look bad.

 

[MusicDOc124]

I dont know anyone who does this.

 

[deleted480308]

People are most likely to leave bad reviews based on their experience not competency. Give me 1/5 stars x1000 if I know I did the medicine correctly

Just for fuller context, if you have a ton of reviews averaging 1/5, it’s probably not because of great medicine