Survey finds physicians very wary of doctor ratings.

Of those who participated in the poll, 31 percent said they worked for health systems, while 24 percent worked at hospitals and 20 percent at group practices. Other answers included private practice (12 percent), academic health centers (9 percent) and managed care/insurance (1 percent). The largest number of respondents said their primary job title was medical director (147), followed by chief medical officer (115). Other titles included staff physician (103), department chair (47), vice president of medical affairs (27) and CEO (22). Although most of the respondents (69 percent) acknowledged they had checked their profiles on an online consumer website that rates physicians, a majority said they believed use of these sites among patients is low. About 55 percent believed 25 percent or fewer patients have used an online physician rating site, and an additional 35 percent put the number between 25 and 50 percent. Only 1 percent of respondents believed more than 75 percent of patients had used the sites. Among the physician leaders who said they had checked their online profile, most consulted Healthgrades.com (89 percent). Also popular were Vitals.com (33 percent) and Angie’s List (19 percent). Other sites listed by respondents were Yelp.com (13 percent), Doctorscorecard.com (9 percent), Ratemds.com (9 percent) and Mdnationwide.org (1 percent). Of the physicians who checked their online profiles, 39 percent said they agreed with their rating, and 42 percent said they partially agreed. Nineteen percent of the respondents said they didn’t agree. Of the physician leaders who said they hadn’t checked their online profile, 28 percent said their reason was because they were too busy. Another 21 percent said they didn’t think patients used them. The majority —51 percent—listed “other” and filled in their own reasons. Among them: In this article...