Doctors and Nurses
Patients who consult a physician practice's Web site for information about doctors are most concerned about other patients' experiences with a physician, particularly other patients' recommendations and the quality of interactions, researchers report in a study in the Journal of General Internal Medicine.
According to the study, patients who are selecting a physician within a practice were almost twice as likely to look for information on the practice's Web site as patients choosing a new physician within the practice.
The authors conclude that the findings support ongoing efforts to develop and adopt a national standard for measuring patient care experiences with individual physicians. The study notes that the performance measures must be easy to understand, meaningful and legitimate (Fanjiang et al., Journal of General Internal Medicine, October 2007).