Table 2 Disincentives for rating physicians
Type of Factor | Code | Example Quote |
|---|---|---|
User Specific | 1. Satisfied with physician | “I was always satisfied” ID 1034 |
2. Others have already reported the same opinion | “Others have written that share my opinion” ID 3050 | |
3. Visiting a physician is an intimate event | “In addition, I feel that visiting a physician is more intimate than visiting a restaurant, which is why I do not want to share any background/concerns/problems”. ID 3394 | |
4. Subjectivity of the evaluation/physician-patient relationship | “In addition, the question arises: can one justify giving 5 evaluation points to a human relationship? The topic is too complex - in contrast to technical products, hotels, etc.” ID 1018 | |
5. Fear of negative consequences | “Yes, I think one factor is...fear of negative consequences, even if they can express themselves anonymously, maybe it’s somehow traceable, I don’t know. So I believe that is still a problem. Just like it is in hospitals often, people don’t complain if something goes wrong because they are afraid that they will next treated even worse next time.” I09 | |
6. Fear to doing harm to the physician | “Yes, because I believe it would be easier for me to give a good rating than a bad one, because I’d have in my mind, that you can destroy quite a lot and because of that I think you have to careful how you write it.” I05 | |
7. Fear that good physicians will be crowded | “Yes, and if we said that now, I would do that too, but you always have to consider one thing….it is already so full and no available appointments, it would not be better if even more people would go there.” I04 | |
8. Internet is not the right place voicing criticism | “It is peculiar, physicians are people and I wouldn’t rate my friends on the internet, but I also don’t belong to the generation of social-media. And I think a physician is a person and if one is dissatisfied they should leave immediately, in best case, also tell him [why].” I11 | |
9. Not qualified to rate aspects of medical practice | “From medical viewpoint, I cannot evaluate medical practitioners on many things.” ID 1223 | |
PRWs Specific | 10. Time required too much | “The time required to register on the websites.” ID 2357 |
11. Websites too complicated/badly designed | “The rating websites are often cumbersome and often not self-explanatory!” ID 3020 | |
12. Lack of ratings guidance | “There is no information available about the permitted contents “What and how can be evaluated?”” ID 4144 | |
13. Mistrust in PRWs operators | “In addition, the operators are often not trustworthy” ID 3193 | |
14. Lack of consolidation of the PRW market | “There is no market-dominating website, with many ratings for one physician. It is thus not possible, like it is for example with “holiday-check”, to read a kind of “cut-set”.” ID 1296 |