Consumers as patients are using online ratings and review sites to rate doctors. A new survey of 2,409 consumers by SoftwareAdvice.com finds that about 72% of consumers now use online ratings sites and physician reviews as their first step in finding a new doctor. That’s up significantly from about 25% in 2013, says SoftwareAdvice.com, a unit of Gartner.

But just as consumers have key reasons for looking up and comparison shopping finding a doctor, physicians also have good business reasons for reading patient reviews and responding with good feedback in a timely—but not immediate or hasty—manner. The frequency with which patients use review sites varies, but a combined majority do so regularly: 54% report using them “often” or “sometimes,” while slightly more than one-quarter of respondents use them “rarely,” says SoftwareAdvice.com researcher Gaby Loria. “This dynamic can make or break a medical practice’s online reputation,” Loria says. “It’s not just that so many patients are using reviews—it’s that those reviews are often the first thing patients see.”

Good physician ratings online can also mean more business going to the doctors and group practices patients like. For example, a good review history can bring out-of-network patients to a practice, as evidenced by the fact that nearly half of respondents (48%) would go out of their insurance network for a doctor with favorable reviews, says SoftwareAdvice.com. “This finding is especially interesting because out-of-pocket costs are much more expensive for patients whose physicians aren’t covered by insurance,” Loria says.

In general, most consumers seem pleased with the quality of treatment they are getting from physicians—only 7% of patients leave “very negative” or “somewhat negative” feedback on reviews sites, says SoftwareAdvice.com. But consumers do expect doctors to respond to their comments. 65% of respondents feel it’s “very” or “moderately important” for doctors to respond to online reviews,” says SoftwareAdvice.com. “The fact that so many patients are sharing positive experiences online, rather than focusing on the negative ones, is very encouraging—and may be surprising to some,” Loria says.

Today there are more than 60 websites that post healthcare provider ratings and reviews. They include websites such as HealthGrades.com and Vitals.com and more general consumer comment sites such as Yelp. More health systems such as Cleveland Clinic and Mayo Clinic also post physician ratings and reviews. Online physician reviews also are getting more specialized.

For instance, Press Ganey Associates Inc. is a big provider of patient satisfaction survey services for the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems Survey, also known as Hospital CAHPS. The program is a standardized survey and data collection methodology that measures patients’ perspectives on hospital care and hospitals are required to submit a new survey each year to the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Recently Press Ganey introduced two new surveys with specialized questions to capture deeper insights around key components of care for virtual healthcare or telehealth visits.

Such new information on how patients rate their digital doctor visits may soon appear in the ratings and rankings health systems and group practices post on their physicians online. “Medical practices must keep an eye on their existing online reviews,” Loria says.

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