Health Care Social Media Review #44: Antagonism Edition

It’s pretty darn cold outside. Therefore not a bad opportunity to stay inside and write about social media. A number of our posts this time around focus on doctor ratings sites: MD Whistleblower is emblematic of doctors who trash physician ratings sites without actually bothering to read what’s on them, in this case offering a number of hypothetical (i.e., fictional) comments as evidence that the sites are no good. Most people wouldn’t criticize a movie without seeing it or write a review of a car without driving it, but somehow many docs know –somehow– that doctor rating sites are no good. Doctors aren’t the only ones to think bad thoughts about ratings sites. Some patient advocates feel the same way. In this post my Health Business Blog starts a quarrel with one such advocate, who is surprisingly dismissive of social media and surprisingly confident in public records to ferret out the peachy keen docs from the bad apples. Online patient review sites are already prominent, yet their potential is far from fully realized. Healthcare Success Strategies reports on a Software Advice study on how patients are using online reviews. Only one in four patients is currently using online reviews to research doctors. The demographics skew younger –no surprise there. And the power of insurance rules is strong enough to keep most people in-network even when they find a stellar review of someone on the outside. And now for something somewhat differe...
Source: Health Business Blog - Category: Health Managers Authors: Tags: Blogs Policy and politics Source Type: blogs