Reviews are an increasingly ubiquitous part of the buying process, and healthcare is no exception, with most healthcare systems now offering the ability to both rate your doctor, and for others to see the reviews left by past patients.

While these ratings are incredibly influential in most walks of life, a new study from the University of Michigan suggests they’re not very influential in healthcare, at least they’re not among older adults.  This is an important finding as this age group are the ones who use health services the most.

The study found that 43% of adults aged between 50 and 80 had used reviews to explore a doctor at any time in their life, with just 1/3 of them doing so in the past year.  Among those who did so however, the reviews do at least appear to be useful, with 2/3 of adults using the reviews to choose their doctor.

Making the choice

The data suggests that online reviews are about as influential as recommendations from friends and family, with just 20% of respondents in that age group regarding online reviews as very important.

“People of all ages are turning to the web to find information, so it is not surprising that older Americans are looking up physician ratings online,” the researchers say. “But it is a bit of a surprise that these online ratings now carry as much weight as recommendations from family and friends.”

The most important factors among this demographic was the waiting time for an appointment, whilst they also regarded the recommendation of other doctors as equally important.  The lack of real engagement with the review system was underlined by the finding that just 7% of those surveyed had posted a review themselves.

The reviews were nonetheless reasonably influential, with nearly 70% of those who do read reviews saying they would reject a doctor who had mostly negative reviews, but a similar proportion highlighted how it would take a majority of negative reviews to influence them, rather than a few here and there.

The survey also revealed a degree of digital savvy, with over half of respondents saying they believed doctors attempt to influence their ratings to present a more positive image.

“This survey makes it clear that although online physician reviews and ratings are important to older consumers, they are savvy about information gathered on the internet and have a healthy dose of skepticism around them, too,” the researchers conclude.