Abstract

Physician rating websites (PRW) show an increase in patients’ participation in the last ten years. More and more people start to rate their doctors even though there is no obvious evaluation basis. Yet, past research has focused on patient satisfaction in general. However, there is no coherent overview of factors influencing the patients’ rating on PRW. This research attempts to fill this gap by adapting the patient satisfaction research in the context of physician rating web-sites. Results show that especially non-medical treatment related topics such as doctor-patient relationship and perception of staff shape the patients’ satisfaction and thus rating. Patient sat-isfaction criteria can be seen as criteria to rate physicians.