Patient and Caregiver Perceptions of Nursing Home Physicians: Insight from Yelp Reviews, 2009–2018

OBJECTIVES To describe the content of reviews submitted on Yelp that pertain to nursing home (NH) physicians. DESIGN Retrospective qualitative study. SETTING NHs in the United States reviewed on Yelp from 2009 to 2018 with reviews that discussed NH physicians. PARTICIPANTS Physicians in 375 NHs in 31 states. MEASUREMENTS Content analysis was performed to detect recurrent themes and divergent ideas about NH physicians perceived by reviewers. RESULTS: Average rating among NHs with physician reviews was 2.0 (standard deviation = 1.5; range = 1–5). The major themes from content analysis of reviews that discussed physicians were perceived attitudes of clinicians toward patients and caregivers, physician communication with patients or caregivers, and perceived clinical expertise of the physicians. CONCLUSION: Unsolicited online reviews of NHs that comment on patient and caregiver perceptions of physician care represent a small but growing number of online comments about NHs. These reviews contain important information about aspects of physician care valued by NH patients and caregivers. However, the sample of comments about physicians represents a small proportion of online reviews and is not representative of all NHs. As online reviews grow in number and become more representative, these data could be used by physicians to improve perceptions of their care by NH patients and their families, and by NHs to inform expectations of their medical director and attending physicians.