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Mildred Dalton Manning, the last surviving member of a group of U.S. Army and Navy nurses taken prisoner in the Philippines at the start of ...
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Consumers Using "Find a Doctor" Website Rely on Current Patients' Ratings of Physicians
Testing the value of patient-reported quality information for quality improvement and consumer choice
Pacific Business Group on Health researchers examined how consumers use patient ratings of physician quality to make selections of personal physicians. They compared consumers' use of patient ratings versus other physician information and the recommendations of family, friends and health care professionals to select a primary care doctor on a "Find a Doctor" Web site.
Key Findings
- Respondents chose top-rated physicians (according to patient ratings) significantly more often than lower-rated doctors.
- Respondents more frequently cited patient ratings as a top factor in their decision than any other type of information.
- Of respondents who reported that patient ratings were a top factor in their choice of doctor, the most important categories were patients' willingness to recommend the doctor and the doctor's interpersonal quality.
Funding
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) supported this unsolicited project from May 2004 through April 2005 with a grant of $49,808.