A trend analysis of over 190 000 online ratings of orthopaedists over the last 11 years

Objective The objective of this study was to analyze online ratings of orthopaedists over the last 11 years based on the most frequently used physician-rating-website jameda. Furthermore, it should be evaluated if there was an association between the number of ratings and the mean rating. Methods An analysis of all published online ratings of orthopaedists on jameda was conducted from 2008 to 2018.Firstly, descriptive statistics (e.g. number of online ratings) were performed cumulatively and for each year. Secondly, for each year the orthopaedists were divided in 3 groups based on their number of ratings (below-average, average, above average) and it was evaluated if the mean rating significantly differs between these 3 groups (Kruskal-Wallis-test, Mann-Whitney-U-test). Results In sum, the 8126 orthopaedists received 193787 online ratings with a mean rating of 1.97 (SD 1.62). The mean rating of the evaluated orthopaedists has been improving over the last eleven years from 2.38 (SD 1.60) to 2.02 (SD 0.96). The mean number of ratings was 23.85 (SD 32.49). The number of revaluations increased continuously, although the revaluations in 2018 were lower than in the previous year (33,759 vs. 34,367). Orthopaedists with the highest number of ratings often showed a significantly better rating than orthopaedists with a lower number of ratings. For example, in 2018 orthopaedists with the highest number of ratings were significantly better evaluated than orthopaedists with a lower number of ratings (1.90 vs. 2.17 vs. 2.06; p<0.001). Conclusions The active use of the physician-rating-website jameda, based on the number of revaluations and rated orthopaedists, considerably increased over the last years, although the number of revaluations stagnated in 2018. The mean rating of orthopaedists increasingly improved, whereas orthopaedists with the highest number of ratings received better ratings than orthopaedists with a lower number of ratings.