Web sites give patients the chance to slam doctors. It’s not easy for the doctors to fight back.
When San Francisco allergist Jeffrey Davidson looked himself up online last year, he was stunned to find negative reviews written by a few of his patients. One called him “patronizing,” another “unprofessional,” and a third complained that the office staff was “too young.” “The things people have written about me and my staff are false and unbelievable,” Davidson complains.
People used to find doctors through physician referrals and suggestions from friends. Now they log on to Web sites where consumers can rate and rant–anonymously. RateMDs.com averages 1,000 new reviews a day and has seen its page views increase eightfold in the past year. The Web site Yelp, where people can review anything with an address, says doctors are in the top ten search queries it gets, right after brunch and massage. AOL cofounder Steve M. Case added a doctor-review feature to Revolution Health, a medical information site he launched in April.
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