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. 2013 Jul 2;15(7):e131.
doi: 10.2196/jmir.2552.

Long-term doctor-patient relationships: patient perspective from online reviews

Alissa Detz  1 , Andrea López, Urmimala Sarkar
Affiliations

Long-term doctor-patient relationships: patient perspective from online reviews

Alissa Detz et al. J Med Internet Res. .

Abstract

Background: Continuity of patient care is one of the cornerstones of primary care.

Objective: To examine publicly available, Internet-based reviews of adult primary care physicians, specifically written by patients who report long-term relationships with their physicians.

Methods: This substudy was nested within a larger qualitative content analysis of online physician ratings. We focused on reviews reflecting an established patient-physician relationship, that is, those seeing their physicians for at least 1 year.

Results: Of the 712 Internet reviews of primary care physicians, 93 reviews (13.1%) were from patients that self-identified as having a long-term relationship with their physician, 11 reviews (1.5%) commented on a first-time visit to a physician, and the remainder of reviews (85.4%) did not specify the amount of time with their physician. Analysis revealed six overarching domains: (1) personality traits or descriptors of the physician, (2) technical competence, (3) communication, (4) access to physician, (5) office staff/environment, and (6) coordination of care.

Conclusions: Our analysis shows that patients who have been with their physician for at least 1 year write positive reviews on public websites and focus on physician attributes.

Keywords: primary care; qualitative; social media.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of Interest: None declared.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Years with primary care physician.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Conceptual model.
Figure 3
Figure 3
A comparison of long-term reviews and other reviews.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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