LYNDHURST, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--As we head towards Valentine’s Day, love is in the air. But not all doctors feel the love equally from their patients. Health care consumers are going online and” showing their love” by providing reviews and ratings to assess doctor quality. But new analysis released from the Vitals Index shows that some doctor specialties are better regarded and better reviewed by patients.
Vitals, a market leader in providing online tools that enable consumers to make informed decisions about the cost and quality of their medical care, analyzed millions of patient ratings for the most popular specialists in 2013. The data showed some interesting – and some surprising – differences.
Cardiologists and plastic surgeons tend to have the highest overall patient ratings, although the propensity for patients to be dissatisfied with results from these doctors is high. On the other side of the scale, average ratings for psychiatrists and endocrinologists were below a 3.0 out of 4 rating, despite that, on the whole, reviews for doctors are positive.
“What the results show us is that consumers may take a more nuanced view towards reviews for certain specialists,” says Mitch Rothschild, CEO of Vitals. “You need to remember that psychiatrists don’t often treat patients who are happy.”
Below is a ranking of the top eight specialists by ratings:
| DR. SPECIALTY | OVERALL RATING | ||
| Cardiologists | 3.40 | ||
| Plastic Surgeons | 3.37 | ||
| Allergists | 3.35 | ||
| Pediatricians | 3.34 | ||
| OB/GYNs | 3.26 | ||
| Dermatologists | 3.09 | ||
| Endocrinologists | 2.97 | ||
| Psychiatrists | 2.87 | ||
Ratings by Location
Of course, specialists seem to be better regarded depending on where they are. It may come as no surprise that psychiatrists are most loved in Washington, DC. But it may raise eyebrows that patients in Mesa, AZ, a place where there are few pollen trees and natural allergens, tend to rate their allergists the highest. Pediatricians in Long Beach, CA are better regarded than those up the coast in Fresno, CA. And who would have guessed that plastic surgeons would be more loved in Arlington, TX than in Los Angeles or Miami.
Below is a list of which specialists are loved most and least by city:
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| DR. SPECIALTY | MOST LOVED | MOST UNLOVED | ||||||||||
| City | Rating | City | Rating | |||||||||
| Psychiatrists | Washington, DC | 3.14 | Arlington, TX | 2.35 | ||||||||
| Pediatricians | Long Beach, CA | 3.51 | Fresno, CA | 3.08 | ||||||||
| OB/Gyns | Omaha, NE | 3.52 | San Jose, CA | 2.98 | ||||||||
| Plastic Surgeons | Arlington, TX | 3.58 | Albuquerque, NM | 2.88 | ||||||||
| Allergists | Mesa, AZ | 3.84 | Indianapolis, IN | 2.94 | ||||||||
| Cardiologists | Nashville, TN | 3.62 | San Jose, CA | 3.01 | ||||||||
| Dermatologists | Austin, TX | 3.58 | Detroit, MI | 2.36 | ||||||||
| Endocrinologists | Portland, OR | 3.32 | Mesa, AZ | 2.06 | ||||||||
The Vitals analysis also showed that not all states are equal when it comes to providing online doctor reviews. Health care consumers in Atlanta, San Francisco and Miami are the most prolific in writing reviews about their physicians, while residents El Paso, TX, Wichita, KS and Fresno, CA are the least likely to write reviews.
And as with ratings, the most and least reviewed specialty varied by geography. It may come as no surprise that people in Miami reviewed plastic surgeons and dermatologists more than other types of specialists. Yet, the data also revealed that psychiatrists receive more reviews than other specialists by people in Atlanta
About Vitals
Vitals believes that technology makes better health possible. We are a leader in providing online tools and actionable data that enable healthcare consumers to make more informed decisions about the cost and quality of their medical care. Through health plans, hospitals and our leading consumer websites, Vitals helps more than 150 million people each year access information for better, more affordable care.
